new constitution :PDP Revisits Zoning

Strong indications emerged yesterday that the controversial zoning formula of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) may dominate the series of meetings lined up for this week by various organs of the party. The meetings of the PDP National Caucus, Board of Trustees (BOT) and National Executive Committee (NEC) are expected to hold tomorrow (Monday), […]

Strong indications emerged yesterday that the controversial zoning formula of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) may dominate the series of meetings lined up for this week by various organs of the party.

The meetings of the PDP National Caucus, Board of Trustees (BOT) and National Executive Committee (NEC) are expected to hold tomorrow (Monday), Tuesday and Wednesday respectively.

A notice of the BOT meeting signed by PDP Acting National Secretary, Dr Musa Babayo, said the Board meeting will hold in the evening on Tuesday at the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa.

The NEC had on Monday last week announced that it shall hold its regular meeting on Wednesday, February 29, 2012. The NEC is expected to deliberate extensively on the review of the PDP Constitution, an issue which is going to form part of the major assignments during March 24, 2012 National Convention.

Insiders told Sunday Trust that the new constitution has to be fashioned in consonance with the provisions of the revised Electoral Act of 2010. The Electoral Act prohibits what has been referred to as automatic delegates to PDP’s conventions, a situation in which political appointees like commissioners, ministers, special advisers and assistants to the president and governors automatically become delegates to the party’s conventions, with voting rights.

Section 86(8)of the new Electoral Acts says: “A political appointee at any level shall not be a voting delegate at the convention or congress of nomination of candidates for any election, except where such a political appointee is also an officer of a political party.”

In the same vein, the party may do away with the former practice of ratifying candidates to contest positions based on consensus, as the Electoral Act in Section 86 elaborately explained that elections must be conducted for the choice of candidates, either through a direct primary election or  an indirect procedure.

Sunday Trust gathered that the proposed constitution will tinker with membership of National Executive Committee (NEC) of the PDP. At present, governors constitute the majority of the 84-member NEC, where decisions taken on critical issues become binding on all members of the party, including members of the National Assembly, whose representation is relatively meager.

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