PDP to INEC: Lead campaign to amend Electoral Act, legalise electronic voting
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has set an agenda for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on electoral reforms in the country.
Addressing a delegation of INEC officials who visited the PDP National Secretariat, yesterday in Abuja, the party’s national chairman, Prince Uche Secondus, asked INEC to initiate Electoral Act amendment that would legalize electronic voting and remove the influence of the military as primary security on election day.
Secondus said such legal framework should also address the issues of collation of results and punishment for electoral offenders.
“We in PDP expect INEC to be at the forefront of the process to have legal frame work for the conduct of free, fair and credible election. Such legal framework should address the issue of security, electronic voting and collation of results and punishment for electoral offenders.
“The survival and sustenance of our democracy rest squarely on the integrity of the electoral commission which will derive from the character and the impartiality of its operatives. Free, fair and credible election is exactly what PDP and indeed global democracy demand and expect from INEC,” he said.
The PDP national chairman said it has not been easy operating under a ruling party whose understanding of democracy is impunity, intimidation and coercion.
“The ruling APC, unlike the PDP, is not disposed to any electoral law that will prevent them from manipulating the system. We in PDP expect INEC to be at the forefront of the process to have legal framework for the conduct of free, fair and credible elections.
“I am not going to bore you with issues that are well known to your commission in your reviews of elections but I would like to urge your commission to move quickly and initiate Electoral Act amendment that will legalize electronic voting and remove the influence of the military as primary security on election day,” he said.
Responding on behalf of the delegation, INEC’s Deputy Director in charge of Election and Party Monitoring, Musa Husunu, promised to report back to the commission’s top echelon the concerns of the party for appropriate action.