Both the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have expressed reservations about the decision by the National Assembly to mandate political parties to adopt direct primaries in selecting candidates for election in the Electoral Act Amendment bill it passed yesterday.
Governor Abubakar Bagudu of Kebbi and chairman, Progressives Governors Forum (PGF), said that adopting direct primaries by political parties would overstretch the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
He said this while speaking with newsmen at the end of a closed-door meeting held by members of the PGF on Monday night.
The PGF is an umbrella body of serving governors elected on the platform of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
The National Assembly has adopted Section 87 on mandatory direct primaries for all parties.
Bagudu said the decision by INEC to make it mandatory for political parties to elect their candidates for elective positions through direct primaries could be undemocratic.
He said the Forum discussed problems associated with direct primaries, noting that there had been concerns that political parties were voluntary organisations.
The governor said the concern of the governors is that if you limit the abilities of parties to choose options that they so desired, “that may even be arguably undemocratic”.
He explained that this was because nothing stops one party from adopting one or the other.
The PGF chairman said the meeting, among other things, reviewed developments in the polity and in the APC states especially, as well as the party’s membership registration and the congresses that had successfully been conducted.
The chairman appreciated the Governor Mai Mala Buni-led Caretaker and Extra-ordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) for the success of the congresses, for supporting APC states and for taking steps to resolve issues wherever they arose.
“In particular, the governors were appreciative of the CECPC because of its respect for President Muhammadu Buhari’s expectations that they should support the party bottom-up, and I think that had been achieved in the last exercise.
“Equally, we reviewed the congresses and advised on how we think it should strengthen our democracy,” he said, noting that the party’s planned National Convention was in progress.
He described as a big milestone the just-concluded APC state congresses, saying that the appeals processes had also been conducted.
“I believe that, soon, the party will inaugurate all the state executives, and then some of the outstanding congresses that are to take place in Zamfara and Oyo states and three other states will be concluded.
“Then we are on our way to setting a date for the National Convention,” he said.
Present at the meeting were governors of Nasarawa, Kano, Kebbi, Ekiti, Plateau, Yobe, Kogi, Ebonyi, Gombe and Osun states, while Lagos and Ondo state governors were represented by their deputies.
Also, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has rejected the direct primary system for nomination of candidates for elections by political parties recently passed by the National Assembly.
The national publicity secretary of the PDP, Kola Ologbondiyan, while reacting to the issue of mandatory direct primaries said: “Our party holds that it is the inalienable right of each political party, within the context of our constitutional democracy, to decide its form of internal democratic practices, including the processes of nominating its candidates for elections at any level.
He added that no political party should force its own processes on any other political party, as the direct primaries’ amendment, a practice of the ruling APC, sought to achieve.
“Having stated this, the PDP shall, within the next 48 hours, make its final decision in respect of this amendment.”
This came as the National Assembly yesterday passed the harmonised version of the 2021 Electoral Act Amendment Bill, approving direct primary elections for political parties and also gave the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) the nod for electronic voting and electronic transmission of election results.
With this, the National Assembly has laid to rest the vexed issue of the mode of primaries to be adopted by the various political parties for the emergence of their candidates in the 2023 general election.
It also, as contained in clause 52 of the 2010 Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill 2021 earlier recommended by the Senate, gave INEC approval for the usage of technological/electronic devices in the conduct of elections and transmission of results.
Concurrence to this effect by both chambers of the National Assembly followed adoption of a report of Conference Committees set up by the Senate and the House of Representatives in July this year by the Senate in plenary on Tuesday.
A total of 21 clauses as presented by the leader of the Senate Committee on Harmonisation, Senator Yahaya Abdullahi ( APC, Kebbi North) , were harmonised by either adopting the one earlier adopted by the Senate or House of Representatives .
Yahaya Abdullahi in presenting the report said: “The objective of the Conference Committee was a reconciliation of the differences in a few clauses of the bill as passed by the Senate and the House of Representatives.
“The clauses are 1, 5, 6, 15, 16, 17, 23, 24, 31, 36, 43, 49, 50, 52, 63, 76, 87, 97, 98, 117 and 135