The malpractices recorded during the last elections have been blamed on political parties, some of which do not have agents in all the polling units during the elections.
Miliki Idris Abdul, executive director, Conscience for Human Rights and Conflict Resolution (CHRCR), said this during a one-day Post Election 2023 Elections Review meeting with political parties organised by CHRCR in partnership with Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) on Anti -Corruption and Accountability in Election.
He noted that if all the parties have situation rooms it will not take more than two hours for them to start receiving their result from their agents.
Miliki emphasised that political parties have a lot of work to do to reduce corruption during elections, adding that they do not have the new Electoral Act in their various offices.
He also said that the refusal to publish results in IREV by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), is a breach of promise, pointing out that electorates were not guided by ideologies and that was why they keep moving from party to party when aggrieved.
Read also: Fubara open to criticism to do better, cautions against politics of bitterness
“Political parties do not even run jingles for their candidates. What do they use the money they collected from their candidates for during registration”?
Miliki charged political parties to follow their candidates from day one to know what they are doing, so that when they come for constituency briefing, they will be able to ask questions about what they have done and equally encourage them.
“All the political parties in Kogi State are guilty of not exposing corruption. For the past eight months Kogi State has not seen water in all the taps. I confronted the SSG on Workers’ Day yet there has been no response and rescue. The minister of Environment has not been living up to expectations, there is dirt everywhere. The complicity of INEC must be addressed for purpose of identification and strength,” he said.
He also urged the opposition parties to come together to speak with one voice and claim their mandate, saying “Our voice needs to be heard”.
Representatives of all the political parties that attended the meeting pointed out that the right people were not given the opportunity to lead but marketers, adding that electorates should not give in to vote buying and selling in order to be able to reject those marketers and vote in the rightful candidates. Meanwhile, the All Progressive Congress (APC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) representatives did not attend the meeting.
