Against the backdrop of controversy trailing the defection of five state governors and 37 members of the House of Representatives from the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to the opposition All Progressives Congress, APC, the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Prof. Attahiru Jega, has declared that all elected officials who cross-carpeted from their parties should vacate their seats for fresh elections.
At the All Political Parties’ Summit held yesterday at the International Conference Centre, Abuja, Prof. Jega blamed the insistence of defectors in keeping their seats to the legal framework as it affects defection which he described as very fluid.
Jega, who spoke on the topic: “Inter-party Collaboration, National Stability and Democratic Consolidation in Nigeria,” lamented the frequent change of political parties by politicians and called for strict laws to check defection by elected officers.
“Some observers have described this as political normadism. While we must respect the right of citizens to choose at will what parties to belong to as part of their freedom of association, the negative effects of hemorrhage of party members and rancour it generates cannot be underestimated.
“If you are elected on the platform of a political party and you cross-carpet and change your political party, then obviously you have to relinquish the seat and an election needs to be conducted to fill that seat. This is an important issue we should address.”
On the challenges of inter-party collaboration, the INEC chairman stressed the need to improve and strengthen the Inter-Party Advisory Council, IPAC.
“We need to improve the functioning of IPAC to ensure full commitment of all parties to the Council and Code of Conduct. We also need to improve the funding profile of IPAC to enable it continue to play its role in growing our democracy and national stability,” he said.
Jega further said that there was need to continue to improve the organisation of political parties with a view to modernising them, adding that “the thorny issue of deregistration of political parties remains. INEC has submitted a proposal on the amendment of the Electoral Act to expunge the provision empowering the commission to deregister political parties to that empowering the commission to determine the criteria for parties to get on the ballot. We believe it will afford the parties space to continue to play their cardinal roles in political development, without challenges posed by election management by the unwieldiness of countless ineffective political parties.”
Jega further declared that INEC had submitted a proposal to the National Assembly to amend the Electoral Act to enable the commission determine the criteria for parties to get on the ballot.
In its contribution at the summit, the United Progressive Party, UPP, decried the low level participation of eligible Nigerians in the electoral process. The party’s National Chairman, Chief Chekwas Okorie, in his presentation, said:
“It is no exaggeration to say that the participation of Nigerians in elections has retrogressively declined to approximately 20 percent on the average.’’
He declared that it would amount to self-deceit to refer to such elections as “the voice of the people.’’ He feared that the security situation across the country, especially in the North-East might worsen the level of participation in the 2015 general elections.
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