The ruling All Progressives Congress, has spoken out on why it supported President Muhammadu Buhari not to sign the Amended Electoral Act Bill 2018.
While speaking when he received a joint pre-election international assessment delegation, National Chairman of the APC, Adams Oshiomhole, yesterday in Abuja, explained why the party supported President Muhammadu Buhari on his decision to withhold assent, for the 4th time, to the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill 2018.
According to Vanguard, Oshiomhole said: “You raised the issue which the President spoke to about the hurried attempt to amend the Electoral Act. The issue is, what are the key issues in the Electoral Act? Now, you digitize the entire process. That has its benefits but it also has huge challenges.
“It now depends on the good heart of those technicians in the control room where the ICT is operated and given the level of illiteracy in the country, given the challenge of unstable power supply in the country, to digitize everything raises issues that cannot just be dismissed.
“The laws as they are empower INEC to use card readers. The Electoral Act empowers the electoral body to make subsidiary rules that have the force of law.
“A number of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, governors, including Rivers State, Akwa Ibom State, if you look at the results for 2015 election, they did not use this card reader. I think that is where the issue came from.
“The Supreme Court tried to show their own bias in favour of the PDP; the Supreme Court held that yes, INEC rules said use card readers but because it is not in the law, it is not necessarily binding. Our point is that, it is not right even internationally, to change rules of election on the eve of the election.”
Oshiomhole also frowned at the growing number of political parties, saying many of the parties have approached the APC asking to be paid in order for them to declare their support for the presidential candidate of the ruling party, President Buhari.
Nigeria currently has 91 registered political parties with more than half of them reportedly in a loose alliance, Coalition of United Political Parties, CUPP, and in support of the country’s main opposition, PDP.
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