Henry Omunu, Abuja
Sixty – one political parties would on Monday approach the courts to prevent the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from releasing the draft guidelines for the 2019 general elections.
INEC is billed to release the guidelines on Monday, even though the 61 political parties have rejected the guidelines which they claimed are meant to manipulate the polls in favour of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Spokesman for the parties, Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere, said on Sunday, that chairmen of the parties will head to court on Monday to stop INEC from releasing the guidelines and also quash some sections of the draft guidelines that are in conflict with the 1999 Constitution, including obnoxious provisions inserted into the guidelines which will lead to massive rigging of the 2019 elections.
He asserted that Section 155 of the Electoral Act gives political parties power to challenge INEC election guidelines in court.
Ugochinyere disclosed that the suit will be filled tomorrow at the Federal High Court at 10am.
According to him, the plaintiffs who are Ikenga Ugochinyere (APP); DR. Sam Eke (GPN); Nsehe Nseobing (RP) and Kenneth Udeze (AA) will in the suit be seeking for an ex parte injunction restraining the INEC chairman from going ahead with the planned release of the controversial guidelines.
The party chairmen csaid the only way to have free and fair elections is for the obnoxious clauses contained in the guidelines which does not promote free and fair elections to be expunged and that the INEC chairman summons an emergency meeting of party chairmen to address the grey areas contained in the guidelines to avoid the 2019 elections running into a hitch and credibility crisis.
The parties further insist that the INEC chairman retains the 2011 and 2015 separate accreditation and separate voting system which voters are fully familiar with and avoid creating confusion and loopholes for massive tampering of results with the continuous/same time accreditation and voting.
Other demands of the party chairmen is for INEC to continue the separate accreditation and separate voting system and ensure that at the end of accreditation on election day, that INEC polling unit staff first announce the total polling unit accredited figures and sign and issue out to party agents at the polling unit before commencement of voting thereby protecting the sanctity of the votes.
“Other contentious issues are the flawed accreditation procedure which allows fake voters whose names are not on the voters register including people with fake PVC or voters not properly accredited been allowed to vote.
“The party chairmen are currently mobilising more party leaders to move against the INEC chairman in the event that he goes ahead to issue out the guidelines without the inputs of the political parties and without removing the obnoxious clauses which will ruin free and fair elections.
“The options on the table of the political parties chairmen will not stop on tomorrow’s court action but will include a vote of no confidence on the INEC chairman and the commission, including a call to step down and a persona non grata declaration and mass protest to alert Nigerians that the 2019 election process have been manipulated,” Ugochinyere added.
