Nosike Ogbuenyi
21 April 2008
Lagos — Presidential and governorship elections usually held in March or April of an election year may be shifted back to at least January of the same year if a proposal to that effect by leaders of major political parties in the country is adopted.
The party leaders under the aegis of the all-parties committee put together by the Presidency proposed that future presidential and governorship elections be held within four to six months to the date of swearing-in of the elected officials in order to ensure that all petitions about elections are disposed of before the winners are sworn in.
They want the intervening period to be used to dispose all petitions and conduct bye-elections that may arise.
This will give an allowance of more than four months between the election as proposed for January and the May 29 hand-over date.
In their joint memorandum due for submission to the Justice Muhammed Lawal Uwais-led Electoral Reform Panel, the party leaders also recommended single tenure of seven years for the president, six years for governors and three years for local government chairmen respectively. Competent sources within the committee of party leaders told THISDAY that the measure was recommended as a strategy to curtail the deployment of public resources to secure re-election by incumbents.
The all-parties committee is being coordinated by the Vice-president, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan
The party leaders further proffered that the appointment of judges to handle electoral petitions should be entrusted in statutory bodies such as the National Judicial Commission (NJC) rather than the President of the Court of Appeal as is the case at present.
They believed that such a measure would help to ensure that only unbiased and competent judges are appointed to serve in the election petitions appeal courts.
It was also recommended by the party leaders that the power to disqualify candidates should be exercised by the political parties and the courts alone, rather than the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The party leaders rejected the Electronic Voting System (EVS), which they observed could be manipulated by officials in favour of desired candidates.
In its stead, they recommended open ballot system, which, according to them, will curb problems associated with the secret ballot system such as ballot box snatching and stuffing.
They equally reasoned that it would help check manipulation by desperate candidates and their supporters.
Under the system, all accredited voters will assemble to vote at the same time in the full glare of all and sundry by queuing behind candidates or posters of candidates of their choice.
The parties said the present open-secret ballot system which combines salutary features of secret and open ballot systems was not good enough.
The party leaders said going back to the open ballot system, which was introduced during the aborted Third Republic under the code name Option A4 would help to stem the increasing rate of election rigging, which is threatening the fabric of the nation's democracy.
Regarding party system, the party leaders upheld the existing multi-party system but not without a self-regulating clause.
The clause stipulates that parties that fail to win 2.5 per cent or 13 per cent seats in the National Assembly should be automatically deregistered.
They recommended that the de-registration should be predicated on the assurance of free and fair election and not the type of massively flawed polls conducted by INEC in April 2007.
The political parties represented in the sub-committee are the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), the Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA) and the All Progressive Peoples Alliance (APGA).
They are represented by their National chairmen and secretaries. The Action Congress (AC) shunned the invitation to serve in the sub-committee.
When contacted by THISDAY, member of the inter-party committee and National Chairman of Progressive Peoples Party (PPA), Chief Clement Ebri, said: "We have done our best at least to strengthen and add value to the Nigerian democracy. We have attempted to address the critical areas that relate to tribunals, party and electoral systems among others. It is now left to the Justice Uwais Committee to distill our proposals and then forward its conclusions to the National Assembly."
Defending the recommendation of the open ballot system, Ebri said: "In democracy, it is acceptable that every country should be able to fashion a process that suits its peculiar socio-cultural milieu. As Nigerians, we decided to go for what suits our peculiar circumstance as dictated by our experience as a people."
Ebri said in addition to the joint memorandum by the parties, individuals were at liberty to submit their separate memoranda to the Uwais committee.
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