Direct primaries, avenue for manipulation – PGF DG

The Director-General of the Progressives Governors’ Forum (PGF), Salihu Lukman, says the amendment of the Electoral Act which forced political parties to adopt direct primaries will create room for manipulations by political parties.

Lukman, in a statement Saturday, stressed that all grey areas on the matter must be eliminated in order to entrench democratic ideals as it was at best, vague.

He said the amended Electoral Act did not address some grey areas on the country’s electoral process.

Also Read: Senate approves amendment of electoral act

The amended Electoral Act which was passed by the National Assembly last week has been forwarded to President Muhammadu Buhari for assent.

The bill, when signed into law, is expected to address all anomalies associated with the indirect primary method of selecting party candidates for elective offices.

Nonetheless, the PGF DG argued that the amendment does not redress the political parties’ management of their membership registration which was essential for a credible direct primary to take place.

“For instance, the only thing that exists as means of identification of party members is an ordinary piece of paper and records of members exist only in hard copies available perhaps to only Ward officials and National Secretariat of the party.

“It leaves much room for manipulation and extraneous practices.

“Beyond the sentiments in favour of direct primary, therefore, there is the need to properly outline a clear administrative framework under the law.

“This will guide the process and guarantee that all the bad practices associated with the indirect method of electing party candidates are eliminated,” Lukman said.

He insisted that the clamour for direct primaries was borne out of the disaffection by some stakeholders over the methods adopted by their parties on the choice of candidates for elections.

“In several respects, the issue of compelling parties to use the direct method for internal party elections as part of the Electoral Act is also popular perhaps because increasingly many political party members and leaders have lost confidence that parties can on their own adopt internal rules that can truly allow for direct primary.

“Otherwise, ordinarily the choice of the direct primary should be decided internally within parties. To a large extent, it is also a matter that should define the ideological orientation of parties,” he added.