By Desire Emmanuel
Three political parties have written a joint press statement condemning the Senate’s rejection of transmission of electronic transmission of election results from polling units.
The Senate had, on Wednesday, February 4, rejected future transmission of election results electronically from various polling booths.
However, reacting to the stand of the Senate, three parties: the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), African Democratic Congress (ADC) and the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) on Thursday, February 5, condemned the move and said it has grave implications for future polls.
The party wrote: “Yesterday, the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria passed the amendment to the Electoral Act 2022, wherein, among other things, it rejected the proposal to make mandatory real-time electronic transmission of results at the polling units.
“The grave implications of this retrogressive act by the Senate has compelled us as spokespersons of the major opposition political parties to jointly address this issue, which is capable of derailing our hard-earned democracy.
“With this anti-people and anti-democratic action, we are concerned that on, the APC-led Senate may have set Nigeria’s democracy back by many decades. It is therefore not surprising that it has deservedly attracted widespread opposition and condemnation from Nigerians across all divides.
“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.
“We therefore harbour no doubts about the intention of the All Progressives Congress (APC), which is in firm control of the two chambers of the National Assembly.
“They know Nigerians are fed up with them. 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. This is why they have to preserve and protect any loopholes that could aid the manipulation of the electoral process to their advantage.
“However, regardless of their party affiliation, we would have expected the Senators to rise above party sentiments and act in the best interest of democracy, for which the legislature remains its most important symbol. But as usual, they failed the people they are supposed to represent.
“In the last election, we are witnesses to the plethora of cases where the court, especially the Supreme Court, held that there was nowhere in the principal Act, which is the Electoral Act 2022, where electronic transmission was made mandatory and therefore the act is lacking of legislative parentage. This immediately signalled a lacuna that needed to be urgently fixed to ensure that future elections do not suffer the same fate. However, beyond providing a basis for judicial action in future, the electronic transmission will increase transparency, trust and belief in the electoral process, which in turn will deepen and consolidate democracy in our country. With this rejection, the Senate has returned Nigeria to square one.
“The ball is now in the court of the conference committee, and we strongly urge its members to align themselves with the Nigerian people by adopting the position of the House of Representatives on mandatory real-time electronic transmission of election results. They should not act as politicians, whose eyes and thoughts are only on the next elections, but as statesmen, who should have the next generation in mind. We are trusting that they will act in the best interest of the people, to forestall the negative consequences that may be result in foisting anti-democratic laws on the people.
