UN PLEDGES SUPPORT FOR NIGERIA'S ELECTORAL PROCESS

der Secretary-General, Political Affairs Department of the United Nations, Mr Lynn Pascoe,yesterday in Abuja pledged the support of his organisation to the electoral process in Nigeria.

Pascoe disclosed this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) shortly after a lecture entitled:'Peace and Security in Africa'.

'One of the things we do at the UN is to help countries around the world conduct better elections. We will try and help the government on the technical side to conduct better elections,'' he said.

Pascoe  stressed that the UN assistance would be mainly in the technical aspect such as voters registration and the computerisation of the electoral system.

He said his department was working with the Nigerian government to determine areas of technical assistance.

Pascoe revealed that a team had met with the Independent National  Electoral Commission (INEC), to work out some of the areas of cooperation.

'We will be working to eliminate issues of duplication of voters' name; you know elections here are a bit complicated,'' he said.On the Niger Delta issue, he said the UN was lending its support to the Nigerian government to restore peace to the region.“The Niger Delta issue is one subject raised by the Nigerian government with us (UN) and we are ready to give our technical support in that regard.“We have areas where we can give some expertise to the situation,'' he said.

On peace and stability in Africa, Pascoe said the UN was working withthe Africa Union(AU) and other regional blocs, such as ECOWAS, to stem the tide ofviolence and instability on the continent.