- Says direct primaries infringes on the rights of parties
By Emma Ogbuehi
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Tuesday rejected a clause in the harmonised Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill which was passed by the Senate.
While adopting the Conference Committee report on Tuesday, the Senate approved the re-amended clauses in the Bill to provide for direct primaries for aspirants to all elective positions.
It also empowered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) under Clause 63 to determine the procedure for voting and transmission of results during an election.
But the PDP said no party has the right to impose its processes on another.
A statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, which was made available to TheNiche on Tuesday said it is the inalienable right of each political party to decide the processes of nominating its candidates for elections at any level.
The statement reads: “The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has received the news of the passage of the harmonized electoral act amendment bill, which among other things, provided for direct primaries for nomination of candidates for elections by political parties.
“Our party holds that it is the inalienable right of each political party, within the context of our constitutional democracy, to decide its form of internal democratic practices including the processes of nominating its candidates for elections at any level.
“The PDP also believes that no political party should force its own processes on any other political party as the direct primaries
amendment, a practice of the All Progressives Congress (APC), sought to achieve.
“Having stated this, the PDP shall, within the next 48 hours, make its final decision in respect of this amendment known.”
Ironically, All Progressives Congress (APC) Governors have also rejected the clause.
The Governors, under the auspices of Progressive Governors’ Forum (PGF), met in Abuja on Monday night and vehemently rejected direct primaries model.
Expressing their reservation to newsmen on Monday night after the meeting, the Chairman of the Forum, Governor Atiku Bagudu of Kebbi, said the National Assembly’s decision was nothing but a usurpation of the duties of the political parties.
Bagudu said the forum resolved that the mode of the emergence of party candidates should be the prerogative of the political parties and not an issue in the Electoral Act.
He argued that the resolution was against the spirit of Executive Order signed by President Muhammadu Buhari, which frowns at large gatherings in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
Aside from this, the Chairman of the APC Governors further argued that in the face of present economic realities, the direct primary would be too cumbersome, unwieldy and overstretch the limited resources of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), which is mandated to oversee primaries conducted by political parties.
He said: “There have been concerns that political parties are voluntary organisations, and our concern is that once you limit the abilities of parties to choose options that they so desire, that may even be arguably undemocratic because noting stops one party from adopting one or the other.
“Direct primary involves of necessity, supervisory role by INEC, at multiple levels, at multiple points, so you can imagine that if political parties are doing their primary, by direct primary, INEC resources will be overstretched and I think the chairman of INEC had even commented on that, so, whether the legislation has incorporated the financial implications, I don’t know yet.”