Coalition of Civil Societies have called on the Electoral Act Amendment Bill Conference Committee to as a matter of urgency harmonise the positions of bill to enable President Muhammadu Buhari append his signature before the November 6 Anambra governorship elections.
Recall that the Senate had on Tuesday empowered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to decide on electronic transmission of election results following pressure from the public.
Addressing Journalists on Wednesday in Abuja, Executive Director, Adopt a Good for Development Initiative, Ariyo-Dare Atoye explain that Nigerians yearn for credible and transparent elections of which electronic transmission of results provides.
Ariyo-Dare who expressed assurance that President Buhari will accent to the bill, advised that future elections beginning from Anambra State in November be electronically transmitted.
In his words “This is a new beginning, however we want to tell the fourteen wise men and women to expidite actions to ensure that this bill is harmonised in the next couple of days, transmitted to Mr President and signed before the November 6 Anambra governorship elections.
“We want the transmission of results that would be done by INEC on their dedicated website legally valid. The moment the president signs and give accent to this bill, we are hopeful that he will do so and this bill will become a legal document for the federal republic of Nigeria.
“The president has told INEC that he will do everything to make them succeed. Everything that will make INEC to succeed is inclusive of a legal framework and the Electoral Act is the number one document in that regard.
“We want to say bad elections are the bedrock of bad governance, good elections will definitely trigger good democracy and good govenance. Our leaders must understand that impunity will not serve anybody any good.
“The only way that we can have a win win situation for both the winner and the looser is to have credible electoral process which will ensure that those who lose will know that they are gracious in defeat and the winners will be humble in victory that is the essence of democracy and that is why we have been yearning for us to have election that reflects the yearnings of Nigerians.
“I believe that members of international communities and our friends within and without will start to applaud Nigeria that this is a good beginning for us in terms of having elections that is credible, transparent, free and fair”.
Speaking on the issue of direct primaries clause adopted by the senate in the proposed Electoral Amendment Bill, the CSOs spokesperson urged the National Assembly to allow political parties practice whichever mode of primaries (direct or indirect primaries) they deem fit.
He said “On the issue of primaries, we are of the opinion that it is important that we allow democracy to prevail.
“If a party have been practicing indirect mode of primaries since 1999, it’s going to be difficult for them to yield to what the National Assembly has done. Ordinarily we would have urged the National Assembly to allow the two mode of primaries to remain simply because it gives options to the political parties.
“However we have a serious concern, our concern is that direct primaries so far in Nigeria have not been well conducted. A case in point is Anambra state where the candidate of a party scored over 200,000 votes and there was hardly any primary in that state.This is not to say even the indirect primaries are well conducted, there were also a lot of problems that was witnessed.
“I think the National Assembly should have concern itself about how to strengthen the mode of primaries that are available and probably seek the input of stakeholders on how to strengthen both the direct and indirect primaries.
“Like we have heard from some of the parties, they have not had what we call the infrastructure to be able to handle direct primaries across the country or within some states but if this is going to be so, we will like to call on these parties to put in place measures that will ensure transperancy and accountability in whatever mode of primaries they are practicing”, he added.
Ariyo maintained that the if the National Assembly will not revert its decisions since the vote has already been done then political parties should have a digital register.
“To maintain a digital register,financial records of members must be put into consideration, if you are not a due paying member, you cannot vote, you must have your register and you must have your number.
“The party membership card must have a well structured arrangement in such a way that not just anybody can be called on the election day or when elections is approaching to come and join PDP, APC or any other party for them to become a member” he noted.
Also, GlobalPresident,ReadytoLeadAfrica, Godbless Otubure commended the Nigerian Senate for listening to the wills and desires of the masses to adopt electronic transmission of poll results.
Otubure expressed assurance that President Buhari will sign the bill stating that this is one of the things that would be recorded for him as an achievement.
“We are encouraged by the fact that what we started almost three years now is beginning to bear fruit that finally Nigeria will have an Electoral Act that is people oriented, that is a deviation from all we’ve always known, that we can now say when we vote, we can be rest assured that our vote will count.
“Today, the coalition of Civil Society Organisations are gathered here to say a big congratulations to the Senate. We are congratulating them because they listened to Nigerians and changed course.
“Elections result will no longer be rising like garri in this country. If you vote and at the end of collation you saw five hundred, what it means is that before the results leave your polling unit to anywhere they want to do that collation, INEC would have received that result. So don’t worry, by 2023 and any other time we have elections in this country, come out and vote because that is what we are going to be seeing.
“We are calling on the conference committee not to go to sleep. This is October. We will be grateful and will give all of you presents and gifts and call you heros by the end of October when the conference committee finish harmonizing the Electoral Act Amendment Bill so that before November, It has gotten to the office of Mr President”.
