The various registered political parties in the country on Monday strongly kicked against any plan to postpone the next month’s general elections.
The parties, as a matter of fact, demanded concrete statement from the Independent National Electoral Commission that the elections would hold as scheduled.
The INEC Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, however reinstated the commission’s determination to ensure that next month’s general elections were better than the 2011 polls.
The representative of the parties at a meeting with the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission in Abuja warned, sternly, that they would not accept any excuses on the postponement of the polls.
A representative of the leading opposition All Progressives Congress, Dr. Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, while speaking at the meeting, warned that no one should interfere with the date for the conduct of the elections.
According to Baba-Ahmed: “First of all, we want INEC to make a statement, a very clear statement, that the dates – 14th and 28th – are sacrosanct. No one should interfere with the conduct of the election on the 14th and 28th of February.
“We want INEC to double it’s efforts to make sure that all voters get their PVCs before the elections.
“We want INEC to improve on voter education but we will play our role. And I hope other parties will also do the same thing.”
Baba-Ahmed, who is a former INEC Secretary, observed that even though there were challenges, “we want to partner with them (INEC) in resolving some of these challenges”.
He pointed out that the elections are not entirely INEC’s problem alone, but advised that the commission should involve the parties in the distribution of permanent voter’s cards.
His words: “We will continue to work with them, we want them to be open. We would want them to take us into confidence so that we know some of the limitations they have so that our party can help.”
Baba-Ahmed believes however that elections could still go on with the figures of PVCs so far distributed.
He added: “Our position is that PVC should be the only mode of identification and we don’t want to consider any options at this stage because any other option will severely compromise the integrity of the process.”
The Chairman of Inter Party Committee, Dr. Yunusa Tanko, urged the Federal Government to declare a three-day public holiday for collection of PVCs.
Dr. Tanko reasoned that this will enable registered voters to go out to collect their cards.
He equally condemned the level of violence observed so far, warning that IPAC will not hesitate to drag to court any political party that violates the non-violence accord.
His words: “IPAC condemned in strong terms the level of violence and lack of accommodation being shown by some political parties to campaigns that have been going on.
“Every political party has the right to campaign in any part of this country without the fear or intimidation.”
Tanko disclosed that IPAC has also set up a monitoring committee to monitor the ongoing campaigns.
Jega restated the commission’s determination to ensure that next month’s general elections were better than the 2011 polls.
His words: “I want to use this opportunity to assure all of you that as we promised Nigerians, we are working assiduously to ensure that we prepare adequately and that we conduct elections that are free, fair and credible and peaceful in 2015.
“I want to also assure you that we are committed to ensuring that the elections we will conduct will be remarkably very, very much better that those we conducted in 2011.
“We believe that even though there may be challenges, such as the distribution of the PVCs, we feel confident that with the measures and mechanisms that we have put in place, that these challenges are challenges that we can overcome and we shall overcome them well in advance of the Conduct of the 2015 general elections.”
Jega appealed to the stakeholders to join hands with the commission in addressing the challenges, while urging Nigerians to be patience with INEC in the distribution of the PVCs.