FCT Polls: Sowore blames low turnout on Electoral Act
By Ishaya Ibrahim
Activist and presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) in the 2023 election, Omoyele Sowore, has said the low voter turnout witnessed during the Area Council elections in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) was the fallout of the Electoral Bill recently signed into law by President Bola Tinubu.
According to Sowore, the signing of the bill into law made a lot of Nigerians lose confidence and trust in the electoral process, per Vanguard Newspaper report.
He said: “What we have discovered is that more and more of our people are no longer voting, and I think it was made adverse by the newly signed electoral law, which doesn’t give transparency the oxygen it needs because democracy needs one oxygen, that’s trust.”
He further stated that, “The moment trust is lost, people stay at home because there is nothing more voluntary than voting – you take your money, you take your time, and if you feel like the thing is not going to produce the results you want, you don’t leave your house.”
He also said they have envisaged the low turnout and lack of interest coming, hence, the warning about the handling of the Election Amendment Bill by the National Assembly.
“And that’s what we were warning them when they were signing their electoral law that is not about activists, it’s about the future of the country.
“If you want people to have faith in democracy, you must give them what they ask for, and that is democracy but I am going around today because this is one of my communities, Kabusa”, he stated.
However, he (Sowore) said the FCT elections are not the elections that Nigerians are focusing on, but 2027 general elections.
“This is not the election that is going to be the most important, it’s 2027, that is going to be the race election, and you must arm yourself, not with weapons, but with knowledge, intellect, and commitment, and conviction to change the course of history in this country”, he added.
