Politics

Chairmen of 91 Political Parties at War with INEC Chairman over plot to rig 2019 elections

Published

5 years ago

January 8, 2019

Olu Emmanuel

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Strongly oppose INEC secret amendment of polling regulations

The meeting of the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Mahmood Yakubu, with Chairmen of the 91 political parties in Nigeria in Abuja on the final arrangements of the Commission for the 2019 general elections snowballed into pandemonium when Chairmen of a conglomerate of political parties spotted secret amendments of the polling rules by the INEC and vehemently opposed the adoption of the unilateral secretly amended regulations.

National Daily gathered that the Party Chairmen accused the INEC Chairman of doctoring the guidelines for the 2019 general elections on accreditation procedures, as well as the appointment of Amina Zakari to head the Collation Unit of the Presidential election, in order to facilitate rigging of the elections for the ruling party. Chairmen of allied political parties to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) were said to have risen in support of the INEC Chairman and attempted to disrupt the protest of the opposition party chairmen but were unfortunately overwhelmed by the agitators of due process.

Apparently, the meeting of the INEC Management led by Prof. Mahmood Yakubu and National Chairmen of 91 Political Parties was thrown into monumental crisis over the unilateral adjustment of the polling guidelines without consultation or notification of Chairmen of the various Political Parties who detected the new guideline smuggled into the meeting with absurd clauses and unusual inclusions that will facilitate to massive rigging of the 2019 elections.

National Daily gathered that Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere, National Chairman of the Action Peoples Party (APP), and the Spokesperson of IPAC and the Opposition CUPP, had raised alarm at the meeting, over strange guidelines INEC introduced without the knowledge of Chairmen of Political Parties and alteration of the electoral proceedings. The alterations were said to have received applause from party Chairmen who supported the INEC unilateral decisions in the belief that they will benefit their political principals and candidates.

The ensuing controversies generated agitations over the alterations of the 2015 accreditation procedures in which accreditation was done separately and voting commencing separately minutes after conclusion of accreditation. The agitators rejected of the new clause which stipulates simultaneous accreditation and voting; which the protesters argued would pave way for scanty polling units that will open opportunities for massive rigging of elections. They insisted that the separate accreditation and separate voting which will make people people stay around the polling units to monitor, resist rigging and protect their votes. The protesting party Chairmen also insisted that INEC must provide a form to record and announce accreditation and issue same out to the political parties before voting starts in order to deter tampering with the results since accreditation has been known.

Also, political parties Chairmen demanded for the total number of PVC collected before the elections and the removal of former corps member and federal civil servants from the list of INEC adhoc staff. The Commission, however, disowned the recruitment advertisement for adhoc staff for the 2019 general elections, noting that INEC has not concluded what the criteria should be for the recruitment of adhoc staff.

INEC conceded to stop collection of PVC one week to the commencement of the elections. The Commission also accepted announce the number of PVCs collected at the state level to the stakeholders.

However, INEC decline to discard its unilateral alteration of the 2015 accreditation and voting procedure which separated the two activities on election day; and insisted on the adoption of the modified process of simultaneous accreditation and voting for the 2019 general elections. The insistence on the latter culminated into conflagration that disrupted the meeting with uproars from the party chairmen. The Chairmen accused the INEC Chairman of insincerity and clandestine plots to aid the rigging of the 2019 elections. They threatened that the political parties will not cooperate with Prof. Yakubu on further preparatory arrangements or endorse the guideline until it is corrected and all the credible election threatening clauses are removed.

National Daily also gathered that initial plot to disrupt the meeting by pro-Buhari chairmen in collaboration with INEC management staff in attendance, who wanted to stop IPAC Chairman, Peter Ameh, from speaking, was rebuffed by the majority Chairmen protesting the illegality, who bundled the few chairmen out of the meeting venue, after which the meeting resumed.

Accordingly, the resistance of the INEC Chairman, Yakubu, to discard the new simultaneous accreditation and voting procedures demanded by Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere, Inter Party Advisory Council (IPAC), National Spokesperson, others chairmen, led to the meeting ending in stalemate. There was tension at the meeting as some party chairmen threatened to stage a walk out at the meeting. Thus, the meeting hurriedly ended in disarray.