The Transition Monitoring Group (TMG), an Abuja-based NGO, has urged political parties to internalise democracy in the parties to ensure hitch-free electoral processes.

Chairman of the group, Mr Mashood Erubami, gave the advice recently while speaking with newsmen in Abuja.

He said the lack of internal democracy in political parties posed a threat to democracy in Nigeria and urged politicians to be transparent at all times to ensure the development of the country’s electoral process.

Our correspondent reports that TMG is one of the election observer groups accredited by  the Independent  National Electoral Commission (INEC) to monitor the conduct of elections in the country.

The group recently said that from observations it made in the course of monitoring elections in some states of the federation, the lack of democratic principles were glaring and constituted a major threat to the emergence of credible leaders.

Erubami maintained that internal democracy within parties could help them to identify specific challenges that truncated transparency and development.

“Internal democracy in political parties is a thing that the political parties have to come out to change.

“The members of political parties must insist that political party must internalise democracy and that internalised democracy must be seen to be practiced by the political parties.

“That is when people will be able to do things the way it should be and fall in line and whatever outcome that comes with, tally with the international standard for credible election, credible convention and credible congresses of the political parties.”

Erubami praised the electorate for being law-abiding and for staying back after casting their votes at polling units to witness the process of vote-counting.

He said such attitude indicated that the country’s democracy was growing.

The chairman also lauded INEC’s approach to addressing the issue of violence during elections, stressing that it was a right step in the right direction.

“We are becoming more constitutional in our approach. Most of the things that we have witnessed or experienced in past elections such as violent practice are gradually fading away.

“In the past you could see politicians go about with thugs after voting to engage themselves in unofficial monitoring of elections, but that has ceased.

“It is because INEC has put in place mechanism to check violent practice during the conduct of elections and as such people are no more promoting violence in elections.’’

Our correspondent reports that TMG is a coalition of rights organisations working together to monitor elections to ensure sustenance of democracy.