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Thu, Mar

2019: Coalition Of Political Parties Reject INEC’s Electoral Guidelines

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The Coalition of United Parties (CUPP) having not less than sixty-one political parties and the Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC), have rejected the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) draft guidelines for the 2019 general elections.

 

The parties are aggrieved by what they described as the flawed accreditation procedure, which they claim will allow people not on the voters’ register, including people with fake PVC or voters not properly accredited, to vote. The coalition also decried the simultaneous accreditation and voting, an amendment introduced by INEC to reduce the time spent by voters at polling centers.

In reaction to the coalition call, INEC said it introduced simultaneous accreditation and voting because in 2015, over two million people accredited but did not return to vote.

The commission said the amended guidelines have been in use in off-cycle elections after the 2015 general elections, wondering why the parties which it has been in consultation with did not have a problem with it till now.

In the words of Oluwole Osaze-Uzzi, director of voter education and publicity at INEC “when they said there was no consultation, it’s not true. It was based on all consultations we have had.”“When you are regulating somebody, when you consult them you don’t necessarily have to accept everything they tell you. You do what is good for everybody. It is like saying students will dictate what should happen in school.”

IPAC’s spokesperson, Imo Ugochinyere, in a statement on Sunday said a suit would be filed on Monday 14th JAN., 2019 to coincide with INEC’s presentation of the document as section 155 of the Electoral Act gives political parties power to challenge INEC election guidelines in court.

Mr Ugochinyere, who is also the National Chairman of the Action Peoples Party (APP), said this is to stop the electoral body from presenting the document, which he described as controversial and to remove some sections of the draft guidelines, which he claimed were in conflict with the provisions of the 1999 Constitution.

According to him, some “obnoxious provisions” were inserted into the guidelines and this would lead to massive rigging of the 2019 elections.

The plaintiffs, according to the statement, are Ikenga Ugochinyere of APP, Sam Eke of GPN, Nsehe Nseobong of RP and Kenneth Udeze of AA.

The chairmen of the political parties are insisting that the only way to have free and fair elections is for those “obnoxious” clauses contained in the guideline, which do not promote free and fair elections, to be expunged.

They also want the INEC chairman to summon an emergency meeting with political party's chairmen to address the “grey areas” in the guidelines to avoid the 2019 election running into a hitch and credibility crisis.

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