The major opposition political parties in Nigeria, including the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, African Democratic Congress, ADC and the New Nigerian Peoples Party, NNPP, on Thursday tackled the Nigerian Senate for rejecting mandatory electronic transmission of results during elections.
DAILY POST reports that the upper legislative chamber had on Wednesday turned down a proposed change to Clause 60, sub-section 3 of the Electoral Amendment Bill, which aimed to compel the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to transmit election results electronically.
The Senate, however, empowered the electoral umpire to decide on the real-time transmission of results.
The development has sparked mixed reactions as a cross-section of Nigerians slammed the lawmakers, especially the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, accusing them of attempting to rig the next general election for President Bola Tinubu.
In a statement jointly signed by spokespersons of PDP, ADC and NNPP – Ini Ememobong, Mallam Bolaji Abdulahi and Bamofin Ladipo Johnson – respectively, the opposition parties accused the All Progressives Congress, APC-led Senate of intentionally protecting “loopholes” to aid future electoral manipulation.
“With this anti-people and anti-democratic action, we are concerned that the APC-led Senate may have set Nigeria’s democracy back by many decades.
“They are aware of the rejection that awaits them at the forthcoming polls. A free and fair election has therefore become a threat to them,” the statement read.
The political parties pointed out that the implications of the “retrogressive act” by the Senate has compelled them to jointly address the issue, which they said is capable of derailing Nigeria’s hard-earned democracy.
“We are at a loss as to why a party that is currently deploying technology to run an e-registration of their members across the country is averse to using technology to transmit results,” the statement added.
