An election observer group, the Independent Service Delivery Monitoring Group (ISDMG) has faulted the failure of political parties in the country to participate in the process of cleaning up of voters register since 2011.
Addressing journalists in Abuja, ISDMG executive director, Dr Chima Amadi said following an FOI inquiry to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), it discovered that even though INEC has been complying with the provision of the Electoral Act and making voters register available to political parties, none of the political parties or individuals have bothered to verify the voters register provided by INEC since 2011.
According to him, the Electoral Act 2010 (as Amended) in Section 10 (3) provided that the Commission shall, within 60 days after each year, make available to every political party the names and addresses of each person registered during the year.
"We were astonished to learn that all opposition parties in Kano State and indeed all other states where allegations of underage voters, aliens and other unqualified persons have ever been made, no political party in the country has ever reached out to INEC with any objection from the copies of the register which they hold," he said
Dr Amadi wondered why parties have refused to participate in the clean-up only to turn around to cry after the milk is spill when there was ample opportunity to ensure the milk did not spill in the first place.
He said this reactionary approach of crying after the milk is spilled is not in the interest of the country’s democracy and particularly free and fair election, stressing that political parties have a role to play in the duty of INEC to maintain a credible voters register and this informed why the law allows the Electoral Commission to issue copies of the updated registers to them.
