The Young Democratic Party (YDM) has kicked against move by the National Assembly to reduce the number of political parties to five through an amendment of the Electoral Act.
Chairman of the Young Democratic Party, Architect Ezekiel Nya-Etok, stated this while speaking to journalists in Abuja.
Nya-Etok, who was the party’s governorship candidate for Akwa Ibom state in the 2019 general elections, said instead of de-registration of parties, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) should put measures in place to ensure only serious and credible political parties appear on the ballot.
Ezekiel told journalists in Abuja that reduction of political parties was not a viable option.
“For legal considerations, and for the good of democracy, it might not be wise to deregister parties…I propose that 20 parties be screened to be on the ballot. INEC must insist on electronic registration of members. Every member seeking to contest must have been a financial member.
“The top 20 parties will be the parties that will be allowed to field candidates for the elections while others continue on membership drive so as to qualify in the next election cycle. If a party is unable to come among the top 20, putting them on the ballot is unwise…”
The full letter
AN OPEN LETTER TO PROF. MAHMOOD YAKUBU, THE INEC CHAIRMAN
Dear Mr. Chairman,
May I use this opportunity to congratulate you on the just concluded 2019 general elections.
I have the dual privilege of having a personal relationship with you, and being a participant in the last electoral process as a candidate.
It is within the above context that I can say with every certainty that you meant well to give the country credible elections.
It is in my place, as a faithful friend, to let you know that all was not well with the last elections, notwithstanding the great efforts you made. While I have no hesitation in giving you credit for improvement that your commission has achieved with every election that you have conducted in the area of logistics, there are policy, systemic, and institutional challenges that you must be made aware of.
This are the areas that I intend to focus on:
1. Compromise of INEC staff and officials:
Offers to election officials are now at levels where the staff would rather be fired than reject such offers. Your staff, for instance, who earns less than N150,000 a month being offered more thanN20m to compromise, or look the other way, will hardly think twice. This is more so as there are no serious consequences, legal or otherwise, for such acts of compromise. You must therefore wish to consider the case of punishment for electoral crimes to be as weighty as capital crime.
2. The Party
I will spend a little more time here.
By the way of background, I’ve been involved in party politics almost from inception of the Third Republic. The ward and local government structures of the party are the most important structures. To have been made the Chairman of the Ward and Local Government Congress Committee to one of the states while I was in the PDP. From there, I contested the primaries of the governorship in 2007. I then moved in 2015 to co-found a party (YDP) where I served as the Pioneer National Chairman, before moving on to contest as a governorship candidate in the just concluded 2019 election. I will, on account of the foregoing, be writing from an informed standpoint.
Today, we have my 91 registered parties, with tons and tons of requests awaiting processing. Mr. Chairman, the reason for this is as simple as can be – the business of party politics.
Parties have become instruments for political financial bargaining through:
A) Sales of forms
B) Negotiations with major candidates
Every party – including the major parties, are effectively dormant until it is election season when the major party activities revolve around sales of nomination forms.
Towards election period, there is usually the flurry of endorsements of other candidates by “merchant” candidates. This has become the new business where a party fields particularly governorship and presidential candidates solely for the purpose of endorsements bargaining.
A clear example is in the 2019 election in Akwa Ibom state. We were 45 candidates but only 4 of us went to the ballot, while the other 41 did their business and went away with a minimum sum of N5m per candidate. For someone who did not print one poster or hold one rally or even spend a kobo and yet got paid N5m, it cannot but be considered as good business.
Likelihood therefore is that come 2023, all 91 parties or more (if more are registered) will each have a governorship and possibly presidential candidates.
This brings me to my proposal for your consideration.
Selecting Parties for the Ballot
For legal considerations, and for the good of democracy, it might not be wise to deregister parties. However, INEC can introduce measures that ensures that only serious parties are on the ballot. I therefore propose that 20 parties be screened to be on the ballot through the following process:
1. Every party will be mandated and obligated to have a register of membership in three categories:
a) Active voting members
b) Active nominal members
c) Nominal members
A) Active voting members: These are members who are registered voters that are financially up-to-date by way of payment of membership registration/monthly fees as stipulated by the party.
B) Active nominal Members: these are registered voters with no financial commitment to the party.
C) Nominal Members: these are non-registered voters but are members of the party.
2. INEC should provide a platform were these members with PVCs synchronize with the INEC platform to ensure that no person registers with two parties, as the registration will carry the PVC details of the party members and such PVCs can only be registered to one party.
These members in category A will form the delegates at primaries. By this method, direct primaries will become the accepted primaries for selection of candidates while any indirect primaries will be strictly based on requests to INEC and approval on peculiar circumstances. By this, parties will be compelled to undergo active membership drive.
A. Parties for the Ballot
Close to 18 months to the general elections, INEC will publish a date for voting. The voting portal will be opened by 8am and closed by 2pm. During this period, all registered voters from all the political parties will indicate their preferred parties for the ballot.
This exercise will be limited strictly to party members and not the general public as INEC would already have such people on their portal.
The top 20 parties will be the parties that will be allowed to field candidates for the elections while others continue on membership drive so as to qualify in the next election cycle. If a party is unable to come among the top 20, putting them on the ballot is unwise.
B. Debates:
To have the most competent candidates on the ballot, and to compel parties to take their manifestoes serious, debates will be made compulsory, mandatory, and obligatory for Presidential and Governorship Candidates. To have all 20 parties at the presidential or governorship debates will be ineffective. INEC will therefore have a second round of ballot for the top 10 parties in the format of the previous but this time it will be open all registered voters. This will mark the beginning of electing competent leaders as no party will field a candidate that will disgrace the party at the public debates. There will be strict sanctions for failing to show up in less than two of possible three debates.
These are my humble suggestions which I respectfully request for your kind consideration, dear sir.
Please accept the assurances of my highest esteem.
Arc. Nya-Etok Ezekiel,
2019 YDP Governorship Candidate, AKS, and
Visioner: Social Governance Ideology.
