25 Political Parties Demand Scrapping Of SIECs

A conglomeration of 25 Nigerian political
parties acting on the platform of the
Inter- Party Advisory Council on
Wednesday brainstormed in Abuja and
demanded urgent amendments to the
2010 Electoral Act before the 2019
general election .
The parties also commended the
Independent National Electoral
Commission in its recent step to discipline
erring officials involved in irregularities,
corruption and malpractices in the Rivers
State rerun elections .
While expressing satisfaction with the
ongoing war against corruption , they
prayed for the quick recovery of
President Muhammadu Buhari for him to
complete the reforms being put in place
by his administration, especially the
crusade against graft .
The parties include the Labour Party ,
Progressive Peoples Alliance, Allied
Congress Party of Nigeria, Accord Party ,
African Democratic Congress, Democratic
Peoples Congress, National Conscience
Party and Progressive Peoples Alliance.
The conglomeration also had the
Advanced Congress of Democrats , Peoples
Redemption Party, United Peoples Party ,
Peoples Progressive Party, Peoples Party
of Nigeria , Independent Democrats and
Better Nigeria Progressive Party in
attendance , among others .
Specifically, the parties, which
recommended the scrapping of State
Independent Electoral Commissions to
protect the nation’ s democracy , passed a
vote of confidence in the National
Chairman of the LP, Alhaji Abdulsalam
Abdulkadir .
The National Chairman of IPAC ,
Muhammad Naldo , made the demands at
a press briefing after IPAC ’s emergency
meeting held at the national secretariat
of the Accord Party in Abuja .
He said, “ 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 .”
Reacting, Oyekanmi, who called our
correspondent , said, ‘no comment ’.