PDP may boycott Edo, Ondo gov’ship polls – Secondus

.Says Nigerian democracy not different from Egyptian democracy

.Asks INEC to initiate electoral reformation

Totally dissatisfied with the conduct of the recently conducted Bayelsa and Kogi states governorship elections, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has said it may not participate in next year’s governorship elections in both Ondo and Edo states.

Condemning the conduct of Ekiti and Osun states governorship election which was said to be tainted by electoral impunity, militarisation and high level compromise by officials of the electoral umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the party said it has no further confidence in the nation’s electoral process and may likely stay away from further polls until meaningful reformation is made to the process.

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The PDP National Chairman, Prince Uche Secondus, said this on Monday while receiving a delegation of the Independent National Electoral Commission ( INEC) led by the Deputy Director, Election and Political Party Monitoring, Musa Husunu, on a courtesy call and verification exercise to the party.

The party berated the militarisation of Nigeria’s electoral process under the administration of the All Progressives Congress (APC), in which the PDP was a victim in Ekiti, Osun, Bayelsa and Kogi governorship polls as well as the Kogi West senatorial district rerun and supplementary elections.

Secondus said it is high time Nigeria choose between the American model of democracy or the military influenced style of democracy practiced in Egypt.

He said: “On our side as an opposition party, it has not been easy operating under a ruling party whose understanding of democracy is impunity, intimidation and coercion.

“Despite a standing lawful court ruling that military should be kept at a distance during elections as secondary security, we have all watched how they not only took over the primary security role from the Police but in some instances dictated and even connived with some INEC officials.

“Nigerians have watched how the Electoral body unable to control the military relinquished their responsibility to them and still curiously went ahead to authenticate such fraud”.

The national chairman said the APC is not keen on electoral reform and that the ruling party unlike the PDP is not disposed to any electoral law that will prevent it from manipulating the system.

“We in PDP expect INEC to be at the forefront of the process to have legal framework for the conduct of free, fair and credible election.

“Such legal framework should address the issue of security, electronic voting and collation of results and punishment for electoral offenders.

Insisting that the integrity of election in the country rests on INEC, PDP said the survival and sustenance of democracy rest squarely on the integrity of the Electoral Commission which will derive from the character and the impartiality of its operatives.

“The effect of bad elections in our polity has been far reaching, stagnating the political and economic development and permanently hoisting on the people unpopular and incompetent leaders. The tension and uncertainty in the country today is clearly a fallout of election mishap in February.

“Free, fair and credible election is exactly what PDP and indeed global democracy demand and expect from INEC”, Secondus added.

He recalled that the party came to office in 1999 and nurtured the nascent democracy for 16 years, during which the PDP carried out an extensive electoral reform that culminated in its loss of power and the entry of the opposition since 2015.

“That seamless transition of power from ruling party to opposition remains the finest time for our democracy and indeed the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). The global democracy stood in salute for us as a nation.

“Unfortunately, both INEC and the government in power have been unable to replicate or grow on that fine foundation”, he said.

Secondus added that 2015 was Nigeria’s finest time with elections in the country but in 2019, easily the height of electoral impunity that set the nation’s electoral development progressively backwards.

The head of INEC delegation, Mr. Musa Husunu, deputy director, Monitoring and Party Verification, said the team is one of the eight teams on party verification exercise.

According to him, mandate of the team include verification of evidence of party headquarters, submission of five copies of party constitution, list of members of the National Executive Council (NEC), physical presence of NEC members, membership register of party and books of party account.

Husunu assured the leadership of the PDP that all observations and comments made by the party will be communicated to the management of the electoral commission.