Two opposition parties in Nigeria have demanded a live broadcast of the Presidential Election Petitions Court (PEPC) proceedings.

Development Diaries reports that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate in the 2023 election, Atiku Abubakar, and his Labour Party counterpart, Peter Obi, demanded the live broadcast.

The opposition parties are contesting the victory of the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Bola Tinubu, in the February 25 election.

At the court sitting on Monday, Atiku and the PDP, through their legal team led by Chris Uche, announced that they had filed an application for an order to allow live coverage of day-to-day proceedings of the sitting.

They argued that the case involved the electorate in the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), who participated in the presidential poll and have the constitutional right to be part of the proceedings.

Live broadcast of court proceedings is not new anymore, as Supreme Courts, High Courts and Appeal Courts across the world have begun live streaming proceedings for greater transparency.

In Kenya, for instance, the presidential petition pre-trial conference at the Kenya Supreme Court was streamed on live TV after their general election held in August 2022.

A live broadcast of the PEPC proceedings would help in dousing tension associated with the proceedings and high expectations by the electorate.

It will also promote transparency in the court process in the public interest.

It is more advisable to do so because the 2023 general election has already been described as flawed by many international and local observers.

So Development Diaries believes that the tribunal granting the request will enable interested Nigerians at home and abroad to follow the proceedings live and be better informed instead of relying on hearsay.

Photo source: Court of Appeal, Nigeria