Director-General Progressive Governors Forum, Dr Salihu Lukman, has said that the amendment of the country’s Electoral Act mandating political parties to adopt the direct form of primaries in selecting candidates for elections, has ambiguities that must be made clear.
He said this in a statement on Saturday in Abuja, noting that the amended Electoral Act does not address some vague sections.
He noted that the amendment being proposed took many issues for granted.
“For instance, the only thing that exists as means of identification of party members is an ordinary piece of paper and records of members exist only in hard copies available perhaps to only Ward officials and National Secretariat of the party. It leaves much room for manipulation and extraneous practices. Beyond the sentiments in favour of direct primary, therefore, there is the need to properly outline a clear administrative framework under the law. This will guide the process and guarantee that all the bad practices associated with the indirect method of electing party candidates are eliminated. In several respects, the issue of compelling parties to use the direct methods for internal party elections as part of the Electoral Act is also popular perhaps because increasingly many political party members and leaders have lost confidence that parties can on their own adopt internal rules that can truly allow for direct primary. Otherwise, ordinarily, the choice of the direct primary should be decided internally within parties. To a large extent, it is also a matter that should define the ideological orientation of parties,” he said.
Lukman appealed to the National Assembly to rework Section 87 of the Bill on direct primary and take it through all the legislative processes, including a public hearing, to enable Nigerians to contribute to making the law before presenting it to the President.