Ex-Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekwerwmadu has given
his personal assessment of the just concluded primary elections by political
parties into various political offices and said, “narrow political interests”
has affected the 2022 Electoral Act as amended.
He said the direct mode of primary election is the only
viable alternative in the nomination of candidates in order to consolidate
Nigeria’s democracy.
The lawmaker decried the overwhelming negative interests of
desperate politicians that made nonsense of the 2022 Electoral Act.
On security challenges, he feared that Nigeria was gradually
turning into another Somalia, if nothing was urgently done to tackle
terrorists, adding that the time has come for the Federal Government to seek
the help of the international community to flush out terrorist cartels.
Ekweremadu spoke at a lecture in Abuja on Tuesday.
“When we mounted the leadership of the 6th National Assembly
in 2007, and in subsequent Assemblies, we took it upon ourselves to reform the
electoral system, including strengthening the critical institutions in the
electoral process, namely the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)
and the political parties,” he said.
Ekwerwmadu said the parliament’s intervention in affairs of
INEC has stabilised and improved the umpire, while he pointed out those areas
to include, “financial autonomy for the INEC; administrative autonomy for the
INEC; removal of membership of a political party as a qualification for
appointment into the INEC; early release of funds to INEC; early primaries to
allow time for resolving any issues, while also allowing the INEC 360 days to
prepare for elections; barring of the INEC from rejecting/disqualifying
candidates; removal of the INEC officials as respondents in election petitions;
removal of restriction on electronic voting; legal backing for smart card
readers and any other voter accreditation technology that the INEC may deploy;
and electronic transfer of results; and ending of disqualification of
candidates by administrative panels.”
According to him, “compulsory conduct of party primaries to
address the issue of impositions; substitution of candidates only in the event
of death or written withdrawal by a candidate; early commencement of election
campaigns; empowerment of political parties to conduct primary election to
replace a candidate who died in the course of an election; timeframe for
determination of pre-election matters; timeframe for determination of election
petitions; stoppage of government subventions for political parties; window for
direct primaries; reduction of age qualification for political offices;
stipulation of the conditions and process for deregistration of political
parties, among other vital reforms.”
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