OneLife Joins Yacore to monitor PVC distribution and CVR in Osun and Ekiti State

OneLife Initiative for Human Development joined the ‘Thumb it Right’ Campaign with other youth organisations on the platform of Youth Alliance on Constitution & Electoral Reform (YACORE) to observe the recently concluded Permanent Voters Card (PVC) distribution and Continuous Voters Registration (CVR) exercise. The project was organised with the support of the Democratic Governance for Development Program of the United Nations Development Programme. The exercise commenced in both states on 9th March, 2014 and ended on 20th March with a review and report writing session.

At the training session in Ekiti State, OneLife’s Programme Director ‘Sola Fagorusi facilitated sessions on ‘Using traditional media for Voters Education and Citizen’s Mobilisation’ and ‘Using new media to share information and improve the credibility of the electoral process’ for members of Civil Society Organisations present at the meeting in preparation for their activities as observers. Other sessions focused on the Electoral Act and nuances of observation as against Monitoring of election-related activities. In Osun state where the observation exercise was carried out, thoughts were aggregated on twitter through the use of these hashtags: #Roadto2015 and #OsunDecides

The lead groups of the ‘Thumb it Right’ Campaign include Youth Initiative for Advocacy, Growth & Advancement (YIAGA), and Partners for Electoral Reform (PER) with funding support by the UNDP-DGD project. A press statement issued by the coalition on the first day of the exercise with observations on the process can be found here – http://goo.gl/auq6yT

An article around this was also published in the Punch Newspaper – http://www.punchng.com/i-punch/inec-one-tweet-one-vote/ The piece and observation also generated feedback from the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) of Ondo State, Mr Akin Orebiyi who said the body is “mindful of the points you raised.” The effort at observing the exercise also attracted attention from the technical advisory committee of INEC. The institution has requested a presentation later this month on the findings and a report by YACORE, YIAGA and PER during the PVC and CVR exercise.