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Opposition parties in the country under
the aegis of the Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP), in
Abuja yesterday, asked President Goodluck Jonathan not to appoint the
chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) if he
intends to contest next year.

They also criticized moves by the National Assembly to legislate a two party system for the country.

Briefing journalists after a meeting in
Abuja, CNPP national chairman, Balarabe Musa, said it will be immoral
for Mr. Jonathan to appoint the INEC chairman if he is contesting the
presidential election, noting that it will amount to somebody who is
participating in a game appointing its referee.

According to Mr. Musa, if the president
makes the appointment, the election will not be credible. He then
advised the present government to implement electoral reforms and adopt
the report of the Uwais Panel, which, among other things, recommends
that the president should not have a hand in appointing the INEC
Chairman.

“If (Mr.) Jonathan is going to run,
then he will likely tamper with the electoral reform to favour his
return, therefore he should not appoint the INEC chairman because he
will end up appointing a PDP member and there won’t be any level
playing ground in 2011,” said Mr. Musa.

Implementing the reforms

The CNPP boss
explained that the electoral reform is critical if the nation is to
break away from the shackles of flawed elections.

“We need this
electoral reform so that votes can count and when the votes count, that
is when you can know the real strength of the political parties,” he
said.

On legislation for
a two-party system for the country, and which the House of
Representatives is scheduled to vote on today, Mr Musa, who is the
national chairman of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) said adopting
the system will deny Nigerians their freedom of choice.

“Let leave the multi party system, which is what democracy is all
about,” he said. “Parties that are not popular will fizzle out, but
then government should stop grant to the parties. Let the parties be
independent and find their level, this is a way of reducing the number
not just by pegging the number of parties to two. Government shouldn’t
fund parties again, let us go back to the old days when it was
difficult for parties to use public funds for political activities.”