The 90th National Executive Committee (NEC) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has directed the National Working Committee (NWC) to constitute an electoral reform committee to enable the party push for the amendment of the electoral act ahead of the 2023 general elections.
The NEC also approved the party’s electronic membership drive and agreed to review the party’s manifesto to conform with the current national political realities.
In the buildup to the 2019 general elections, President Muhammadu Buhari declined assent to the Electoral Act Amendment Bill three times, citing “drafting issues.”
Addressing a press conference yesterday in Abuja, the national publicity secretary of the party, Kola Ologbondiyan, said the party’s electoral reform committee would provide a framework on how to improve on the nation’s electoral process.
“In the PDP we believe that until there are improvements in our electoral laws, our elections are not going to be credible, and this is going to endanger our democracy. So the party has resolved to constitute a committee that will work in tandem with National Assembly members elected on its platform and other interested parties as well to form a broad-based committee that will work with our parliamentarians,” he said.
Ologbondiyan also dispelled the claim by Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State that many governors elected on the platform of the PDP had concluded plans to jump ship to the All Progressives Congress (APC) after the Ebonyi State governor, Dave Umahi, dumped the party on Tuesday.