2023: CDD,Arise TV  Host Four Leading Political Parties To Presidential Town Hall 

Sola POPOOLA
Arrangements  have been concluded for the takeoff of  the Presudential Town Hall organised by the  Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) is collaborating with Arise Television .
Four out of the 18  political parties, according to the CDD Director, Idayat Hassan will be featuring on the programme billed to State today. and will be aired  on Arise Television ,its YouTube and social media platforms.
The statement  said CDD and Arise identified the need to ensure citizens hear from the presidential candidates.
” Nigerians need to hear how their future leaders plan to address the rising level of insecurity, considerable economic challenges and the impact of foreign affairs in domestic considerations. This has informed our engagements around the elections, from providing fact-checking support and working with partners to provide analyses on the election security terrain.
“We are aware that there are questions surrounding the shortlisted candidates we invited to the first townhall. However, this decision was not without reasoning or a set methodology.
“To ensure ample time devoted to hearing each of the candidates, we ran a survey on Twitter from the 4th to the 10th of October asking citizens to vote on which four parties they wanted to hear from. All 18 political parties were listed in alphabetical order. After the survey was closed, nine parties did not receive a vote. ” the statement reads in part
It added that “the remaining nine received the following percentage of votes- African Action Congress (AAC) – 20.7%, All Progressives Congress (APC) – 86.2%, All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) – 6.9%, Labour Party (LP) – 96.6%, New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) – 51.7%, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) – 82.8%, Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) – 6.9%, Social Democratic Party (SDP) – 6.9% and Young Progressive Party (YPP) – 13.8%.
“The result of this survey informed our decision to invite the highest four scoring parties – LP, APC, PDP and NNPP to the town hall. CDD is an independent and neutral institution and is non-partisan or linked to any political party or candidate. The methodology stated above was set before the survey was sent out to avoid any insinuation or claims of bias.
“We do not expect this to be the sole platform for candidates to engage with the electorate. Through our ongoing work – a weekly newsletter focusing on issues for candidates, an election security tracker in partnership with the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data project (ACLED), a fake news observatory to monitor misinformation spread during the campaign and our periodic reports and outreach programmes ahead of the election – we expect to support and amplify voices and platforms so Nigerians can make an informed decision.
“We hope that this townhall is not the only avenue for Nigerians to listen to their presidential candidates. We welcome other platforms and opportunities to support an issues-based campaign in the run-up to the 2023 elections. We are optimistic that such dialogue and engagement can only portend for better civic engagement and lead to a peaceful and reflective election outcome.” the statement said

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