Former President Goodluck Jonathan has said the ballot by the electorate and not the judiciary should determine the winners of elections in the country.
He said this on Monday in Abuja, when he visited the digital pan-African news network, the TOS TV network, led by Ms. Osasu Igbinedion.
“Ballot papers should be the basis of selecting political officeholders. If it is the judiciary that should select them then we are not yet there. I am not saying the judiciary is not doing well but our laws should suppress the idea of our judiciary returning candidates.
“The ballots should decide who occupies the councillorship seat up to the presidency; that is democracy,” Jonathan said.
He also urged the nation’s youths to participate in politics, saying the political system controls everything globally and that the nation’s youths should not be left behind.
He said his administration gave women and youths the opportunity to take part in politics, adding that was the only way they could influence government programmes and policies and effect changes.
The former president, who lost the 2015 presidential election to incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari, also decried money politics and criticised politicians using gifts to sway voters.
