A group of over 400 civil society organisations (CSOs) in Nigeria has faulted the extension of the deadline for political parties to conduct their primaries for the country’s 2023 general election.
INEC extended the deadline from 03 June to 09 June after a meeting with Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC), which had requested for an extension of the deadline by at least 37 days more.
The newly approved six-day extension, according to the electoral umpire, will afford the parties to conclude outstanding primaries and prepare the list of candidates and upload their affidavits on the INEC portal.
‘The commission did not schedule any specific activity during this period. The idea is to simply give parties time to compile the list and personal particulars of their nominated candidates before uploading the same to the INEC Candidates Nomination Portal from [tenth]–[17] June, 2022’, a statement from INEC read.
However, the Transition Monitoring Group (TMG) slammed INEC for the deadline extension.
‘A lot of political parties have made efforts in conducting their primaries and if the ruling party is still uncertain about the day to conduct its presidential primary elections that [should not] be the basis for the extension’, the Chairman of the foremost election monitoring group, Auwal Musa Rafsanjani, said in a statement.
The group also raised concerns over claims of vote-buying in political party primaries across the country.
He said, ‘Any financial inducements on delegates were tantamount to the mortgaging of the country’s future.
‘We are appalled by the incidents of vote-buying and sundry financial inducements on the delegates in the ongoing political party primaries across the country.
‘Delegates should note that they [do not] have to go to the extent of mortgaging Nigeria’s future on the altar of ephemeral financial gratifications. They should think of Nigeria first before any other considerations.
‘Our observers reported that aspirants’ agents were largely involved in coordinating vote-buying for various persons seeking political offices, which is unfortunate.
‘It should be noted that the influence of money in an election has far-reaching implications in Nigerian politics because any politician that spends to be voted for will surely work towards recouping the money at the end of the day, and it is still the voters that will be at the receiving end’.
Photo source: Tony Blair Institute for Global Change
