Nigeria Content Online

The Independent
National Electoral Commission has no plans yet to penalize any
political party on grounds of breaching sections of the Electoral Act,
a senior official of the commission told NEXT yesterday. With the
parties’ nominations at the state and federal levels in progress, and
the presidential primaries of the major parties days away, concerns
over adherence to the Electoral Act, by political parties have kindled
fresh debates.

In choosing flag
bearers, mainly for the presidential contest, the new amended Act
provides parties with options between direct and indirect primaries,
allowing their members to vote for each aspirant nationwide, or poll
through delegates at state congresses and later, convention, in an
effort to clamp down on the illegal consensus candidates. As of yet,
almost every party is opting for the second alternative for its
primaries — the delegate option.

Analysts have
warned of a ploy by the political parties to systematically disregard
the law governing the emergence of presidential flag bearers, by
passing a consensus arrangement for an indirect primary, citing the
emergence of the former military ruler, Mohammadu Buhari of the
Congress for Progressive Change (CPC).

They have called
for sanctions against such breaches, leading to speculations that Mr
Buhari’s choice maybe refused recognition by the electoral body.

“The position of
the law are very clear on the issue and what I know will/is happening
is that the political parties are going to hold primaries that will be
skewed to the advantages of some individuals, and they will insist to
INEC that they have held their primaries,” a former chairman of the
Nigerian Bar Association, Rotimi Akeredolu, said last week.

In an interview
with NEXT over the weekend, INEC acknowledged a “few” lapses in the
processes already held. Kayode Idowu, the media aide to the chairman,
Attahiru Jega said: “At the policy level, we are aware that there are
lots of lapses,” adding that the leadership of INEC has encouraged
officials of the commission concerned to point out those lapses and
draw the attention of the parties concerned to those errors. But a
senior official of the commission, who is knowledgeable about political
parties’ internal processes, said so far, the electoral body is
satisfied with the conduct of the parties with respect to laid down
rules.

“The CPC followed the Electoral Act and held congresses before the
convention, so we have no problem,” the official, who declined to be
named since there was no authorization for the remark. “However, they
are human beings, and we must expect some mistakes which we promptly
bring to their attention.” The early breach noticed, according to the
official, was that many of the parties insisted on staging consensus
primaries, which will lead to selected, rather than elected candidates,
against the Electoral Act. That plan was overruled by the commission,
the official added.