ACJ WITHDRAWS FROM ELECTORAL DEBATE DUE TO UNGUARANTEED INDEPENDENCE, SETS TONE FOR ELECTION MONITORING
The leadership of the Association regrets to inform you of its withdrawal from the Great Ife Students' Union Elections Debate which, according to the calendar, should be held today Monday, 30th of August, 2021, by 2pm.
As we all know that by convention, the Association of Campus Journalists, OAU usually handles the Students' Union electoral debate and has, over the years, done it well. However, we will like to inform the general public of our withdrawal to participate during this time. This resolution is coming after a last-minute consideration of the terms, conditions, and modalities of the debate set down by the Electoral Commission.
Like two football teams finalizing agreements over the transfer of a player, the leadership of the Association and the leadership of the Commission could not reach a mutually favorable agreement over the modalities of the debate. As a result of the Association's last-minute in-house ruling, the leadership does not feel assured of independence with the said terms, conditions, and modalities, and, as such, cannot continue as initially arranged.
Having communicated our intent to withdraw to the Electoral Commission and having promised our support in their future activities, we want to assure the Commission and Great Ife students' community of doing everything possible to ensure effective election monitoring. Letters are being processed to appropriate school authorities, our staff advisers, our legal advisers, our mainstream partners, and security agencies to ensure that our election Monitors and election Observers are recognized, safe, and protected in the course of doing their job.
As part of our safety procedure, we want to state that our election Reporters and Monitors will be with ACJ tags signed by the leadership of the Association. This is to ensure due recognition as they go about doing their job. As the Association continues to build on its existing good reputation, we appeal to everyone to follow voting guidelines and conduct themselves in the best democratic way possible.
We are doing everything humanly possible to ensure that prompt and real-time election updates are not missed and adequately published in a coordinated form. And we assure everyone involved in this election of fair, accurate, and fact-backed reporting.
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