2019 Election: 25 political parties gang up against INEC to make huge demands

The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has been told to review and amend the 2010 Electoral Act before the 2019 elections.

A composite of 25 political parties in Nigeria coming under the platform of the Inter-Party Advisory Council, IPAC, made the request yesterday, March 8.

IPAC also applauded the INEC in the aspect of disciplining the some officials involved in corruption, irregularities and malpractices, recently in the Rivers State rerun polls.

The conglomeration includes the Accord Party, African Democratic Congress, Allied Congress Party of Nigeria, Labour Party, Progressive Peoples Alliance, Peoples Redemption Party, Democratic Peoples Congress, Progressive Peoples Alliance, the Advanced Congress of Democrats, and National Conscience Party.

Others in attendance are United Peoples Party, Better Nigeria Progressive Party, Independent Democrats, Peoples Party of Nigeria and Peoples Progressive Party.

The parties specifically suggested the scrapping of State Independent Electoral Commissions in order to protect the national democracy.

Votes of confidence was also passed in favour of Alhaji Abdulsalam Abdulkadir who is the National Chairman of the Labour Party.

Muhammad Naldo, the National Chairman of IPAC, made the demands at a press session following the IPAC’s emergency meeting held at the national secretariat of the Accord Party in Abuja.

“We have 25 political parties here endorsing this resolution. IPAC is calling on the constitutional and electoral committees to work assiduously with the National Assembly to ensure effective and prompt amendments to the 2010 Electoral Act before the 2019 general election.

“We are making these demands because we want our democracy to be well protected. All those grey areas that have been very controversial and creating confusion should be addressed, including party supremacy. Let political parties be responsible for the nomination of candidates for election.

“We are also recommending the scrapping of SIECs to allow a level-playing field for all political parties to participate in elections. The SIECs are using INEC apparatuses to conduct elections, including party registers and ballot boxes.

“The only thing they don’t provide is the manpower. And if INEC can provide manpower for all elections, why can’t it do same at state and local government levels? The SIECs are not independent. So, we want an independent electoral umpire to conduct elections at state and LG levels,” He said.