2019: Most political parties registered by INEC are trading centres ― Oshiomhole

NATIONAL chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Adams Oshiomhole on Wednesday condemned the number of political parties in the country.

The APC national chairman made the condemnation while receiving a delegation of members of the National Republican Institute (NRI) and National Democratic Institute (NDI) in his office in Abuja.

Ahead of next February general elections, the former President of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) dismissed the number of political parties in the country as too unwieldy and further noted that they could create confusion for the electorate.

Findings revealed that out of the over 90 political parties in the country, 73 submitted nominations for the presidential and other elective offices.

Oshiomhole exonerated the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the huge number of political parties as he submitted that the electoral body was handicapped by judicial pronouncements, which frowned at regulation of political associations, seeking registration as parties.

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The APC chairman said individuals behind the parties only use such platforms to negotiate for relevance as he claimed that some of them were already seeking for financial inducement from the ruling party to adopt President Muhammad Buhari as their presidential candidate.

He said: “Our constitution guaranteed the freedom of association, INEC tried to restrict the registration of political parties, the judiciary said no you can register anybody who wants to but the result is that we have a long ballot paper which poses challenges on election day with regard to how people are going to identify who to vote for.

“But more worrisome is that you form a party today, tomorrow you gang up that we are not producing candidates we are supporting this. I can tell you how many requests I have from these so-called political parties that if you pay me this we will announce that we are supporting your Presidential candidate. So people have formed political parties as a platform for trading, we don’t need to create democratic merchants, creating more confusion, generating more heat.”

Speaking on the controversy trailing President Buhari refusal to append his signature on the Electorate Act Amendment Bill, the APC chairman said the concern raised by President Buhari was salient to the sanctity of the electoral process. He further accused the apex court, the Supreme Court of showing bias for the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP) in its judgment in the suit filed by the APC to challenge the outcome of the 2015 governorship election in Rivers State, particularly on the disregard for the card reader during the election.

“You raised the issue which the President spoke to about the hurried attempt to the electoral act. The issue is what are the key issues in the electoral act? Now, you digitalise the entire process that has its benefit but it also has huge challenges it now depends on the good heart of those technicians in the control room where the ICT is operated and given the level of illiteracy in the country, given the challenge of stable power supply in the country, to digitalise everything raised issues that cannot just be dismissed. The laws as they are empowered INEC to use card readers. The electoral act empowers the electoral body to make subsidiary rules that have the force of law.

A number of PDP Governors including Rivers State, Akwa Ibom State, if you look at the result for the 2015 election, they did not use this card reader. I think that is where the issue came, the Supreme Court tried to show their own bias in favour of the PDP, the Supreme Court held that yes, INEC rule said use card reader but because it is not in the law, it is not necessarily binding. Our own point is that it is not right even internationally to change rules of the election at the eve of the election.

“You may have read, some people saying interim government. Those who believe they cannot win elections if we cannot get it, let’s abort democracy. If you then create a situation where people manipulate the electronic system to lead to an outcome in which you cannot legally safeguard the votes so what happens. We don’t think that we should do anything that can undermine our democracy as you all know, the worst form of democracy is preferred to the most benevolent dictatorship.”

Earlier in his remarks, leader of the delegation, Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield told Comrade Oshiomhole that the opposition parties accused the head of security forces in the country of lack of neutrality and the ill motive of President Buhari over his stance on the Electoral Act Amendment Bill.

“There have been lots of concerns raised about security. Security in a number of facets: lack of confidence in the security services, their neutrality, and the president ( Buhari) responded that he has engaged with the security services and Police and told them that they need be neutral.

“That does not change the fact that there is a perception that the security services are not being neutral. A number of concerns were raised among other political parties that the playing field is not even that the ruling party has some advantages that they don’t have. That is normal when you are the ruling party, but they are appealing that the playing field is not an even playing field. We got a lot of concerns raised about the electoral commission and about how the poll is going to be conducted, and again we had a very good discussion with the electoral commission. We talked with the National Peace Committee ( NPC) and we were extraordinarily pleased that the peace accord that all the political parties signed, that there will be additional accord to be signed calling on all parties that once the result of the election is announced, any disagreement should be taken to the court.

“We also met with the president of the Court of Appeal and talked to her about some of the challenges she may face. It has been a fruitful visit. We will be interested in hearing from you some of the challenges you face.”