PDP mistrusts INEC over 2019 polls

The PDP has expressed fears that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) might not conduct credible polls in 2019.

The party specifically pointed out that the commission had been dancing to the tune of the ruling APC on matters relating to elections.

Addressing a United Nations (UN) delegation at the party’s national secretariat yesterday in Abuja, the PDP National Chairman, Prince Uche Secondus, said the APC should accept defeat in 2019.

“We are very worried whether 2019 will be free and fair. As a matter of fact, this (INEC) is the only electoral body that has conducted elections several times and they (government) will call for a re-run when it is not in their favour.

“We were in power as a party for 16 years. We midwifed and deepened democracy. In the 2015 election, we lost and conceded defeat without attempting to go to court. On record, it is the first time it has ever happened in this country. We did not go to court and our candidate did not go to court.

”We realised it was democracy and the will of the people. But we have fears today that since APC came to power, all the elections we have conducted came with huge question mark,” Secondus said.

The party also flayed the electoral umpire for performing “below” the expectations of Nigerians in the past couple of years.

The Leader of the UN delegation, Serge Kubwimana, said the team was in Nigeria on a need assessment mission and would take inputs from political institutions in the country in order to determine the thematic areas of possible assistance to INEC ahead of the 2019 elections.