By Daniel Njienue, news/comments, June 26, 2019
ABUJA—Interestingly, sixty unpopular presidential candidates in the 2019 election have thrown their weight behind the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, over their stance that the Commission had no server to record election results. The candidates’ joint press conference in Abuja, yesterday, commended INEC for standing in defence of truth and reality on ground, while urging the opposition party and its presidential candidate, Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, to accept defeat rather than asking for what is not in existence, the forum spoke under the umbrella of Joint Forum 60 Presidential Candidates through its Convener, Chief. Perry Opara . The statement reads:
: “We reiterate that the INEC server controversy is unnecessary. It is a plot to discredit the election as political parties never agreed with INEC in any of the several pre-election meetings that results will be transmitted electronically. Parties agreed on a lot of issues with the commission and those were implemented. “The just concluded 2019 presidential election, the most recent in our democratic journey, was very eventful. Nigerians must recall that the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, most commendably released for the very first time the timetable for the elections a full year before the poll day. “The activities, preparatory to the elections, were all done in line with the timelines, hence Nigerians were in shock when the elections were postponed”.
“The events that foisted the shift on INEC, we later discovered, were due to sabotage and political manipulations, which were prompted by politicians to gain undue advantage in the elections. “We, however, applaud the proactive leadership of the electoral commission for taking the best decision in the interest of the nation to shift the opening of polls and conduct of the elections. “For us, who were direct participants in the election and with the information we had, we felt the election was impossible in seven days, hence it was a major pull off for INEC to have conducted it that time without any major hitches”
“In the build-up to the elections, we, as
presidential candidates and our political parties, held several meetings with
INEC. The delay in finalising the electoral legal framework and the eventual
withholding of assent to the Electoral Act Amendment Bill deprived the nation
of the much needed reform of our electoral process, which must be anchored on
the rule of law. “The needless controversy over the INEC server would have been
lawful as it would have been mandatory for the commission to deploy the
server.” Call on Buhari to sign amended Electoral Act “Going forward, we would
like to urge President Muhammadu Buhari to immediately sign the Electoral Act
Amendment into law once it is presented to him again by the National Assembly.
That amendment will hugely improve our electoral system and its processes. “We
also demand the immediate setting up of the process that will lead to the
sanctioning of all personnel of security agencies who compromised the elections
to serve as a deterrent to others and to exhibit that there are consequences
for risking the peaceful coexistence of the country and putting the country in
danger.” “We urge all Nigerians to remain peaceful and law-abiding and go about
their lawful duties as we believe that the Presidential Election Petition
Tribunal has for now put the controversy to rest with the ruling it gave
yesterday (Monday). “Let us support our electoral system to make it better and
secure the rights of Nigerians to freely chose their leaders.”
Read more at:
https://www.vanguardngr.com/2019/06/2019-polls-60-presidential-candidates-back-inec-over-server/
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