Over 40,000 Nigerians have signed online petitions demanding the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to include the names and pictures of candidates on ballot papers.
Gatekeepers News reports that two petitions initiated differently by Otuto Chukwuocha and Drive Change were hosted on the world’s largest petition platform, change.org.
Targeting 35,000 signatures, the petition created by Otuto Chukwuocha has been signed by 30,612 people as of Monday, 8th of August. While the petition by Drive Change which is targeting 15,000 signatures has been signed by 11,470 persons.
Chukwuocha, while justifying the need for the petition, said the names and pictures on the ballot papers will help voters identify their favourite candidates easily.
He wrote: “There have always been numerous challenges during voting season, including associating candidates with their party logos.
“To make voting easier especially for those who are not very literate, it is imperative to ensure voter education.
“INEC should therefore include the picture and names of candidates to match their party logo on the ballot paper to help voters identify their candidate of choice with ease.”
Also sharing an infographic of what the ballot paper should look like, Drive Change wrote: “Dear INEC Nigeria, our ballot paper should be like this because in the true sense of it, it is actually the individual with his vice that we are voting for.
“All the elections conducted in Nigeria in the past, the ballot paper just carried only party logos. But it is not the party we vote for that leads us after the elections but the individual.
“Almost all the countries in Africa have both the face, the name of the candidate, his/her running mate, and the party logo on their ballot papers. Please do this for Nigerians”.
Gatekeepers News observed that the infographic shared, has pictures of the candidates and their running mates lined up on a side of the proposed ballot paper with their names, party logo and fingerprints of voters right beside it.
