Imposition of direct, manual transmission of election results by national assembly: Coalition slams APC for truncating electoral process

An agglomeration of civil society groups, non-governmental organizations, professional associations, political activists, students unions, human and gender rights advocates under the aegis of Save Nigeria Coalition (SNC) have condemned in no uncertain terms what it called ‘the patently undemocratic, unconstitutional and illegal tinkering with the provisions of the Electoral Act by the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) in order to pave the way for the massive rigging of the forthcoming 2027 elections which will only deepen the hardship, suffering and deprivations of the Nigerian people’.
In a strongly-worded communique issued by the SNC Director of Press, Dr Jude Odumodu and made available to newsmen in Abuja recently the group averred that: ‘we have been following with keen interest, the ongoing deliberations in the National Assembly particularly regarding the electoral process and we must state that the SNC is stoutly opposed to the revision of key provisions of the Electoral Act regarding the conduct of primaries by political parties’.
It has been a time honored principle that parties are allowed to adopt direct, indirect or consensus primaries to choose their candidates for elections but contrary to hallowed tradition, the APC led House of Representatives has passed an unpopular resolution over strenous objections by opposition Members which makes it mandatory for all parties to conduct direct primaries for their prospective candidates contrary to the respective parties’ constitutions which provides for the adoption of consensus and indirect primaries as deemed suitable.’
lt is clear that the APC leadership by imposing direct primaries on the opposition parties is paving the way for the infiltration of those parties with their acolytes utilizing huge amounts of money through the direct primaries which is expensive to adopt’. Given the humongous amount of money at the disposal of the APC led federal government, it is a child’s play for them to sponsor their cronies in other parties using the direct primaries to destabilize and sow confusion as is being done in the PDP and LP and we are staunchly against such rapacious suppression of the opposition parties’
The SNC also resolutely condemns the resolutions passed by the Senate and House over the strident objection of Nigerians in order to make electronic transmission of results optional and not mandatory for electoral officials as earlier enacted’.
The only way to ensure a free, fair, transparent and impartial electoral process acceptable to all and sundry is for the mandatory electronic transmission of election results without any proviso for manual transmission whatsoever’.
Any other provision to the contrary would only provide a convenient loophole for unscrupulous officials to manipulate the electoral process to alter, replace, divert and even distort the legitimate results of a particular election thus subverting the will of the people and the constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria’.
Thus we wholeheartedly and unreservedly condemn the recent resolutions of the Senate and the House of Representatives affirming manual transmission where electronic transmission is not practical’.
There is no part of this country where POS or electronic banking is not feasible, and this should also apply to electronic transmission of election results which utilizes the same network as banking transactions’.
Thus the additional proviso on manual transmission inserted by the APC leadership of the Senate and the House of Representatives is mischievous, irrational, illogical and patently unacceptable to the overwhelming majority of the Nigerian people who want genuinely free, fair and credible elections’.
We of the Save Nigeria Coalition have all along known that the present APC led federal administration is desperate to cling to power at all costs come 2027 despite its woeful, pathetic, erratic and profoundly incompetent performance so far which has thrown hundreds of millions of Nigerians into mass poverty, pervasive hunger and wrenching deprivation unprecedented in history’.
In fact due to the clueless and epileptic performance of the Tinubu administration, Nigeria has been ranked as the ‘poverty capital’ of the world and the same government is devising all manner of dubious schemes and shenanigans to remain in power’.
To this end, the SNC will mobilize, sensitize, aggregate and energize Nigerians from all the geopolitical zones to oppose the dubious electoral agenda of the APC government utilizing all legal, legitimate and constitutional means at our disposal in order to ensure a free, fair, credible and transparent electoral process come 2027 and beyond’.
The voice of the people must be heard and their votes must count come rain, come shine’.