By Austin Ogwuda
… thumbs up for the National Assembly
…it is also impossible to alter results once uploaded on the IREV
FORMER Commissioner for Lands, Surveys and Urban Development in Delta State, Nigeria, Barrister Raymos Guanah has commended the National Assembly for amending the Electoral Act to reflect the views and opinions of Nigerians.
He stated that the amendment has further reassured the voting masses, who were hitherto despaired, that there votes would eventually count.
Guanah spoke after witnessing the inauguration of the newly elected Ward Executives of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Patani local government area of Delta State.
According to him, “The electorate who were fast losing confidence in the electoral system because of the questionable outcomes after elections as results of alleged manipulations between the polling units and the local government collation centres can now heave a sigh of relief.
He maintained that “With the electronic transmission, the votes counted and entered into the Form EC8A from the polling units, it will be impossible to tamper with the results, more especially as the amended Electoral Act has made the results to be posted on the IREV and what the IREV has is the authentic and valid results”.
Party primaries
On providing direct primaries and consensus as the only ways candidates will emerge in the various political parties, Barr. Guanah said that “This is one of the best legislations ever made since the commencement of the 4th Republic”.
He posited that with the amendment, all members of various political parties will now be responsible for choosing who will fly their flags, not just a select few individuals.
“At this rate”, he went on, “it will be difficult to find protest votes against party candidates as it used to be in the past when some people feel cheated in the process of emergence of the candidates.
“Also, it will eliminate or reduce vote buying to the minimum because the candidates have emerged by direct primaries or consensus”, he posited.
Guanah further added that “with this mode as provided in the Electoral Act, those elected into public office will now work harder to deliver the dividends of democracy because their emergence now depends on the electorate and not the amount of money they dish out’.
He lamented that “In the past, the delegates voted for candidates who could offer them more money during the primaries instead of voting for credible candidates”.
He however advised that in the case political parties are to use the direct primaries, the system of secret ballot should be adopted, because if they use the option A4 method of queuing behind a preferred candidate, a candidate that sees that he is losing by seeing the number of people behind him or her might resort to decide to instigate crisis, thus disorganising the entire exercise.
*Barrister Raymos Guanah
