The Nationwide Election Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) has expressed curiosity in studying from Nigeria’s electoral expertise and improvements as a part of efforts to strengthen democratic establishments and improve the credibility of elections in Ethiopia.
Deputy Chairman of NEBE, Tesfaye Neway, made this recognized on Monday throughout a research go to to the headquarters of the Impartial Nationwide Electoral Fee (INEC) in Abuja.
He mentioned the mission was aimed toward deepening institutional studying and fostering strategic partnerships between each electoral our bodies.
“Our presence right here is a part of an expertise and publicity go to designed to construct strategic partnerships between our establishments. We consider democracy grows stronger when establishments study from each other,” Neway mentioned.
“We hope to study from Nigeria’s improvements in voter registration, electoral know-how, civic training, and stakeholder engagement, whereas additionally sharing challenges we face, corresponding to electoral violence and misinformation.”
The Ethiopian delegation, which incorporates members of the Coalition of Ethiopian Civil Society Organisations for Elections (CECOE), is in Nigeria to understudy numerous elements of the nation’s electoral system, together with planning, logistics, voter training, and know-how deployment.
Responding, INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, described the go to as a possibility for cross-border collaboration on electoral finest practices, noting that Nigeria and Ethiopia share comparable political and demographic complexities.
He noticed that each nations are multi-ethnic and multi-religious federations, including that Nigeria and Ethiopia collectively account for a couple of quarter of Africa’s inhabitants.
“Within the space of election administration, NEBE and INEC share comparable constitutional obligations, which embrace conducting nationwide and regional elections, registering and regulating political events, monitoring election bills, delimiting constituencies, creating polling models, accrediting observers, and conducting voter training,” Yakubu mentioned.
He disclosed that the one-week engagement would function 9 technical classes masking the complete electoral course of, from strategic planning and constituency delimitation to inclusivity, know-how deployment, and administration of delicate election supplies.
“Over the following one week, we’ll share numerous elements of the Nigerian expertise with our guests by way of 9 technical classes masking the complete gamut of the election course of—from strategic plans and implementation to election monitoring, inclusivity, stakeholder engagement, and know-how use in voter registration and candidate nomination,” he added.
Additionally talking, the Govt Director of CECOE, Abera Hailemariam, underscored the essential function of civil society in selling electoral integrity and mentioned Ethiopia is especially thinking about understanding how Nigeria conducts voter training in a number of languages throughout numerous communities.
“We worth this partnership and stay up for deeper cooperation between NEBE and INEC, with the assist of growth companions,” Hailemariam mentioned.
