9th Assembly: Group demands open voting system for new leaders

The Sustainable Democracy Agenda (SUDA) has called for open voting during the election of presiding officers of the incoming 9th National Assembly.

In a statement issued, yesterday in Abuja, the convener of the group, Ibrahim Usman, said it had uncovered plot by some principal officers of the present 8th National Assembly to manipulate the election of presiding officers in both chambers through secret voting system.

“The principal officers are allegedly desperate to manipulate the process with the aim of re-enacting the 2015 scenario, where presiding officers emerged against the resolution of the APC,” the statement said.

According to the statement, “the plan is to ensure that they thwart the resolution of the majority All Progressives Congress (APC), which has adopted Ahmed Lawan (PDP, Yobe) as Senate president and Femi Gbajabiamila (APC, Lagos) as Speaker of the House of Representatives.

“They are bent on frustrating the majority party by installing their stooges as Senate president and speaker through the fraudulent secret voting pattern,” the group claimed.

The group argued that the electorate had the right to know how their representatives in the Senate and House of Representatives voted during the elections, saying “those seeking to lead must be ready to emerge through an open process devoid of hypocrisy.”

According to the convener, the APC leadership, including President Muhammadu Buhari, must remain firm in support of party supremacy, having witnessed how the cold war between the National Assembly leadership and the Executive arm truncated delivery of the change agenda in the last four years.

The group therefore called on the Clerk of the National Assembly to discard the controversial Senate rule book used for election during the inauguration of the 8th Senate.