The Electoral Forum in Nigeria has called for the capacity-building of political parties to be defenders of democracy.
According to the forum, it is more important to identify measures to increase democratic and inclusive procedures, rather than regulating the internal affairs of political parties in the country.
The forum, an initiative of the Electoral Hub, agreed that direct primaries at all levels of political parties would be ‘prohibitively expensive’.
President Muhammadu Buhari had withheld assent to the Electoral Act Amendment Bill 2021 over concerns tied to direct primaries.
Compulsory direct primaries for political parties and electronic transmission of election results were among the amendments proposed by the National Assembly.
Buhari, in a letter to the lawmakers, noted that the mandatory use of direct primaries for all political parties in the country will be too expensive to execute, saying that it will put a financial burden on Nigeria’s slim resources.
The National Assembly later deleted compulsory direct primaries from the bill.
In a statement on the forum’s Third Technical Session, which was supported by the MacArthur Foundation, the forum held that regardless of the manner of primary elections used, the final choice of candidate is the entitlement of all voters.
The Third Technical Session, Development Diaries understands, was held to discuss key ‘contentious’ areas for further reform in the electoral process.
The statement, signed by the Chairman of The Electoral Forum, Professor Adebayo Olukoshi, noted some recommendations to improve the electoral process in Africa’s most populous nation.
‘Some measures proposed include building the capacity of political parties to be defenders of democracy, sensitising party members on regulations governing the practice of party primaries and making party members aware of the power of their vote’, the forum proposed.
The Electoral Forum members also urged civil society organisations (CSOs) and the general public to always investigate the integrity of nominees for INEC commissioners.
The forum noted that this was to protect the integrity of INEC from being flooded by ‘lobbyists’ and partisan nominees.
‘The forum also supported the idea of the scrutiny of nominees being the responsibility of the public. They proposed that the CVs of nominees be thoroughly scrutinised, with members of the public having the ability to raise issues and provide comments’, the statement read.
The ongoing advocacy for the retransmission and assent to law of the Electoral Act Amendment Bill is one of several efforts by the civil society to engineer a reform of electioneering in Nigeria.
Photo source: The Electoral Hub
