The Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) has urged the Independent Electoral National Commission (INEC) to sanction groups and individuals flouting the provisions of the recently released 2019 electoral timetable.
Executive Director of the centre Auwal Musa Rafsanjani at a state of the nation media briefing on Tuesday in Abuja said it is important to protect the provisions of the Electoral Act and other relevant laws of the country in the interest of national development.
He said the gross violation of the provisions of Electoral Act arising from improper use of the released electoral time table by politicians and political parties that engage in premature campaign activities as against provisions of Electoral Act is worrisome.
“We are not unaware of the persistent violation of various regulations guiding political party financing that has hitherto undermined free, fair and credibility in the electoral process. We are concerned by the dwindling internal democracy across political parties. We are not unaware that all forms of electoral malfeasance are committed including undermining selection of candidates within the political parties, vote buying; electoral violence among others.
“While we understand that candidate selection is a vital activity to the existence of any political party, we are disturbed by the spate of party members endorsing candidates outside laid down party constitution resulting in undemocratic processes,” Rafsanjani said.
According to him imposition of appropriate sanction against perpetrators of electoral violence and electoral fraud to sustain sanity and sanctity will promote credibility in the nation’s electoral process.
He also recommend “Strict compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act as Amended in the 2017 in regulating financing activities of political parties, and strengthen relevant machineries by INEC with holistic mechanisms to ensure candidates’ imposition, parallel congresses, and undemocratic conduct in political parties are nipped in the bud.”
