Following available records on the Independent National Electoral Commission on twitter handle, showing female voters are leading the fresh registration list with more than one million participants, the National Democratic Institute (NDI) and the Gender For Development Action (GADA) have commenced campaign aimed at reducing violence against women in politics as well as increasing women’s participation in the 2019 general elections in Rivers State.
The Senior Program Officer of Gender For Development Action (GADA), lnyingi Irimagha, disclosed this during a media round table discussion on increasing the active and effective participation of the media in reducing violence against women in politics.
She noted that her organization’s interaction with women in the State revealed that women are not very optimistic about coming out to vote in the forth coming general elections, due to perceived violence and sense of insecurity.
She called on INEC, Political Parties, Security Agencies and all relevant stakeholders, to ensure that electoral processes are safe enough for women to fully participate, especially since they are the ones actually making electoral decisions in Nigeria.
Stressing the need to encourage women’s active participation in elections, she observed that political parties need to conduct themselves in a manner that would build confidence in their female voters.
She further called for increased reporting on strategies that will curb all forms of violence against women during elections since bulk of the voters are women, adding that the security agencies, especially the Police, should be committed to protecting women at the polling units.
