*Submit petition to commission
Henry Omunu, Abuja.
Leaders of 61 political parties have submitted a petition to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) rejecting 10 of the guidelines for the 2019 general elections to be released by the electoral umpire on Monday.
The signed resolution and petition to the INEC chairman and his federal commissioners by the 61 political parties has just been submitted to INEC leadership at the commission’s headquarters in Abuja, after an emergency meeting of the country’s party leaders.
How INEC reacts will determine the fate of the 2019 election which seems to be heading for a major crisis.
National Chairman of the Action Peoples Party (APP) and the Publicity Secretary of IPAC (the inter party advisory council), Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere, who made this known disclosed that the political parties objected 10 obnoxious clauses inserted into the election guidelines which are capable of ruining the credibility of the 2019 elections.
He said that the parties demanded the retention of 2011 and 2015 separate accreditation time and separate voting time to help forestall rigging with the presence of voters at the polling unit instead of INEC 2019 simultaneous accreditation and voting.
They also demanded for the announcement of accreditation figures by 12 noon on election day to be recorded in a signed form and given to party agents before voting starts to forestall doctoring of election figures during collation.
Other demands include, stoppage of PVC collection 10 days to election and disclosure of the total number of PVC collected on polling unit basis to political parties.
That parties reject the clauses in the guidelines which allows unduly accredited voters to vote especially the clause that allows voters with PVC whose names are not in the register of voters to vote.
Ugochinyere further listed other demands to ensure transparency in collation and transmission of results with accredited representatives of election observers and political parties monitoring.
“Political parties reject the creation or usage of secret polling units called voting point settlements and demand full list and location of such units.
“Political parties demand INEC meets with party chairmen before final release of the election guidelines.
“Political parties demand the redeployment of Amina Zakari as head of collation centre and replacement with Federal Commissioner in – charge of Operation, Prof. Okechukwu Ibeanu to ensure credibility and balancing.
“Political parties reject the use of former youth corps members and staff of federal government agencies as ad hoc staff
“Parties threaten to pass vote of no confidence on INEC chairman if he goes ahead to release the contentious guidelines on Monday without further consultation with political parties chairmen,” he said.
The signed resolution and petition to the INEC chairman and his Federal commissioners by the 61 Political Parties (majority of Nigeria 91 Political parties) has just been submitted to INEC leadership at the Hqrs few Minutes ago after emergency meeting of the Country’s party leaders.
