By Ubong Sampson
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has accused the All Progressives Congress (APC) of using the senate to plot anarchy during internal party elections.
In a statement signed by its Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan and made public on Tuesday, the party said the decision by the “APC-controlled Senate” concerning the Electoral Act amendment is a humongous blow to the development of democratic norms.
Recall that Niger Delta Searchlight had reported that, in an amendment to the Electoral Act, the Senate had, earlier on the same day, approved for political parties to henceforth use only the direct mode of primaries, commonly called Option A4 by politicians, to nominate candidates for elections.
While claiming the decision is rolling back the country’s democracy, the PDP also described the development as a retrogressive provision that seeks to wipe off all the gains achieved in the electoral practice since 1999.
The party in the statement, held that the provision is aimed at increasing the costs of nomination procedures and surrendering the processes to money bags, which according to the statement, is against the wishes and aspirations of Nigerians.
“Our party makes bold to state that with the exception of the APC, which intends to deploy looted funds in future election, hardly will there be any political party that will be able to raise the cost of conducting internal elections under a direct primary process.
“This is why the decision of the Senate has elicited widespread rejection from Nigerians across board”, the statement partly read.
The statement further urged the Senate to immediately deploy its appropriate legislative instruments towards reversing itself on the direct primary decision, as the statement claimed, is not operable and does not reflect the wishes and aspiration of majority of Nigerians.
