All patriotic citizens of Nigeria interested in deepening democracy and bringing about good democratic governance in our fatherland need to rise with one voice and demand that the National Assembly refocuses the current electoral reform process towards ensuring electoral integrity.
This the clarion call from the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) which is sad and concerned that the National Assembly is poised to squander yet another opportunity for bringing remarkable improvement to Nigeria’s electoral legal framework.
According to a statement by Alhaji Falalu Bello, (OFR), the party’s National Chairman, the so-called final copy of the Electoral Bill 2021 now before the Nationally Assembly and which may be passed on Tuesday, July 6th, 2021 or thereabout, has jettisoned some of the key accepted recommendations by stakeholders while taking on fresh amendments which could, in the opinion of the PRP, jeopardize the integrity of future elections in Nigeria.
The PRP is most concerned with three issues/matters it says are in need of being addressed and these are
- Section 50 (2) which it fears would prohibit the use of electronic transmission of results by INEC if passed as such even when, globally and once done robustly and appropriately, electronic transmission of results adds remarkable integrity to a country’s electoral process, by among other things, removing human interference and tampering with results; making results tabulation real-time and transparent; and also speeding up the process of tabulation and declaration of results in the shortest possible time. For this reason, the party says electronic transmission of result has become a global best practice for electoral integrity, being introduced and/or perfected in many electoral jurisdictions contrary to the National Assembly seemingly trying to prohibit INEC from doing it! “By prohibiting rather than legalizing it, the National Assembly members would seem to endorse tampering with results collation, tabulation and processing of results, which the current manual/analogue processing entails, with all the accompanying fraudulent activities”, it added.
- Secondly, the removal of the powers of INEC to review results where a candidate was declared the winner under duress, a recent but dangerous tendency involving “powerful but crooked politicians” compelling Returning Officers (ROs) to declare results under duress. According to the party’s statement, the provision on this by stakeholders was accepted and incorporated into the new Bill except that Section 65 of this power to INEC has been removed in the version now before the National Assembly. If this section is left as it currently is, politicians in future elections would very likely be even more brazen in either buying off Returning Officers or literally ‘putting guns to their heads’ to get them to declare fraudulent results while INEC watches helplessly as was the earlier cited case in Imo State, declared the PRP. It is also saying that, in past elections, politicians found ways of either threatening or inducing Returning Officers (ROs) to declare false results in their favour hiding under the legal cover that once ROs declare results only the Tribunals can review them and that, in the 2019 general elections in particular, 2 Senators from Imo State got ‘elected’ in this manner, and somehow scaled the legal huddles at the Tribunals. These are creases the PRP says INEC could have easily resolved had it got the legal power to review petitions regarding the results before declaration by ROs. It was the search for that legal power that made citizens canvass for the provision now under the hammer of the NASS.
- (3) The thirdly point of the party’s alarm is that, inexplicably, the Bill now before the National Assembly for likely passage on Tuesday July 6 or thereabouts, has, in Section 88, significantly raised the thresholds and limits of candidate campaign financing! If this is passed, a presidential candidate would be free to spend up to N15 billion, raised from N1 billion; a gubernatorial candidate could spend up to N5 billion raised from N200 million; a Senator is free to spend up to N1.5 billion from N40 million; a candidate for House of Representatives could spend up to N500 million raised from N30 million; and a candidate for State House of Assembly could spend up to N50 million, raised from N10 million (Section 88). “Unless this Section is addressed and the thresholds drastically scaled down, the National Assembly would legalize electoral contests for the highest bidders and the richest candidates”, the PRP protests, adding that, for elections to be truly representative, candidates and party election financing need to be curbed appropriately to create a level playing field for all contestants, not just the rich.
Against this background, the PRP is calling on the National Assembly to halt the passage of what it calls the so-called new Electoral Bill 2021 scheduled for this week, “until appropriate corrections are made, consistent with citizens popular demands”. The PRP is particularly calling on the National Assembly to as a matter of urgency:
(1) Review Section 50(2), remove the prohibition of electronic transmission of results and grant INEC the power to introduce a technologically robust and transparent electronic transmission of results so as to remarkably improve the integrity of Nigerian electoral process;
(2). Revisit Section 65, and grant INEC the legal power to appropriately review the results declared by any returning Officer under duress;
(3). Revisit Section 88, and drastically reduce the campaign financing thresholds and limits, to curtail the influence of money in politics and create a level playing field for all contestants, without undue advantage being granted to the rich and wealthy contestants.
According to the PRP, bringing into effect an Electoral Act that respects and represents the wishes of the Nigerian
people as articulated and expressed during the consultations and public hearings is the requirement for members of the National Assembly to truly answer the title of peoples’ representatives.
The PRP, said the statement, condemns any attempt by anybody or group of persons to hoist on Nigerians a so-called New Electoral Act, which would undermine rather than improve the integrity of elections in Nigeria, concluding with a call on all patriotic Nigerians, individually and in organized groups, to bring pressure to bear on the members of the National Assembly to do the right thing rather than rush a new Electoral Bill which would significantly undermine the integrity of future elections in Nigeria.
