League of Women Voters of --Lower Merion and Narberth--

...Promising that the 'Stick to the Issues campaign' would be extended to the six regions of the country, Thompson urged both incumbents and new political aspirants to realise that the new Nigerian voter will demand leadership with vision, with compassion, consultation and a clear articulation and demonstrated understanding of the issues of poverty in a land of plenty, issues of transparency and accountability, environmental degradation; universal access to quality health-care, comprehensive safety nets, and livelihood protection among others.

Sarah Diefendorf, the 2nd Vice-President of League of Women Voters of the United States, who delivered the key-note address at the launching, highlighted the issue of political accountability, which entails clean and clear campaigns run without deception or coercion that addresses issues in a meaningful way; and where elected officials respond to their constituents needs as opposed to the wants of their richest benefactors and top lobbyists.

Speaking on holding political contestants accountable to voters on issues, Diefendorf outlined the various powers that can be employed by the electorate to force candidates to fulfill their electoral pledges, and strategies to achieve maximum cooperation between the electorate and their representativesAccording to her, "all politics is local. An educated voter is a powerful voter. The campaign never ends. Every candidate knows the next election is just around the corner, so the campaign never ends for the civil society issues. In the United States, anyone can register voters, churches, mosques, political parties, environmental organisations, anyone can register voters. Timing is everything and picking the right issue is crucial. You cannot do it all".
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She called on participants to make campaign issues compelling by developing effective message which tells the story. "Issues need to be personalised to become meaningful to individuals. All issues are complicated. Never negotiate, stand fast on your campaign. Political parties do change their minds if they have to. Civil society should make the issues known and push the issue to the fore through the media", she advised.

In a detailed explanation earlier while speaking with THISDAY at the forum, Diefendorf outlined the registration procedure in USA, a process which if adopted to a reasonable measure in Nigeria, would go a long way remove all hitches in our current voters' registration process.

According to her, hundreds of thousands of volunteers and organisations help in a nation-wide process of registration of voters. In the same process, double registration or voting is reduced to the barest or almost impossible minimum and all voters automatically have their data keyed into a central data-base that is accessible to all nooks and crannies of the country.