Round two as INEC receives petition
The last has not been heard of the epic battle in the ruling PDP for the presidential ticket of the party despite the overwhelming win which delegates of the party granted President Goodluck Jonathan in the recently concluded primaries of the party. Even though Jonathan’s rival, Atiku Abubakar has said he was not going to […]
The last has not been heard of the epic battle in the ruling PDP for the presidential ticket of the party despite the overwhelming win which delegates of the party granted President Goodluck Jonathan in the recently concluded primaries of the party. Even though Jonathan’s rival, Atiku Abubakar has said he was not going to quit the PDP as was speculated, he has not conceded victory to Jonathan, saying he will remain in the party to continue with the fight, something which fuelled speculations about what actions he might take next.
After a period of lull in which it was speculated that the Jonathan camp was making overtures to reconcile with the Atiku camp so the PDP could forge a united front to face the April elections, Weekly Trust can reveal that the Atiku camp has now decided to take the battle to INEC where it has written a petition challenging the conduct of the election on grounds of several alleged irregularities. The INEC petition could be a prelude to a long bout of legal battle, a war which Atiku is much good at, having kept one of the most formidable legal team in the country that had in the past won court victories for him that saved his career at a time when the PDP tried to have him removed as vice president to former President Obasanjo when the two men fell out and Atiku defected to the AC to pick a presidential ticket.
The petition which was obtained by Weekly Trust detailed what the Atiku campaign organization termed “the apparent lack of openness and fairness in the recently conducted PDP Primary process which flagrantly violated the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended), PDP Constitution and the PDP Presidential Primary election guidelines.”
The outcome of the primaries has produced an unsettling disquiet when it was clear that southern delegates of the PDP granted Jonathan more than ninety percent of the votes where Atiku never got a single vote from some southern states. Jonathan will still go ahead to beat him in most of the northern states, including his home state Adamawa where he lost massively to Jonathan. Right after the convention the state governors were fingered as the masterminds of the Jonathan landslide because they wield enormous influence over their delegates. Almost on cue protesters in some of the northern states like Adamawa, Katsina, Jigawa, Bauchi and Kaduna will take to the streets and rile against the governors. The petition written to INEC by the Atiku camapaign now alleges in detail how the governors were used to grant an unfair victory to Jonathan, breaking the electoral laws. It said: “The Atiku Campaign also drew public attention to the unacceptable situation in some states where delegates were barred from meeting Atiku Abubakar on the directive of the governors. Such states included Jigawa, Ebonyi, Abia, Kaduna and Akwa Ibom. It was clear that PDP state governors were under intense pressure from the presidency not to allow Atiku Abubakar to meet the delegates from their states. The PDP leadership refused to take a firm and decisive action against this undemocratic practice or primitive display partisanship. This was an infraction of Section 85 (3) of the Electoral Act 2010 which states that all elections including primaries ‘shall be conducted in a democratic manner and allow for all members of the Party or duly elected delegates to vote in support of a candidate of their choice.’”
The petition to INEC also went on to state that, “Although the Atiku Campaign had demanded that accreditation of delegates and election officials be made open and transparent, the party leadership ignored this. The accreditation was handed over to state governors and ministers who handpicked those they trusted would vote for President Jonathan and left out suspected Atiku sympathizers from the convention. This was also in violation of Section 85(3) of the Electoral Act 2010. Despite Atiku Campaign’s vehement opposition to state by state voting and the labeling of ballot boxes according to states, the PDP went ahead to do just that. Giving the statement credited to Chief Tony Anenih, former BOT Chairman, issuing threats to delegates that ‘they will be fished out and dealt with if they cast their vote for Atiku’, such voting pattern intimidated delegates and made them unable to vote according to their consciences. This action was against the spirit and letter of Section 131 of the Electoral Act 2010.”
Even though what most of the petition highlighted were already staples of media reports before and after the PDP convention, it is a confirmation that the internal crisis within the PDP is far from over. The petition alleged that the party and its leadership was compromised. It said: “The PDP leadership kept the Atiku Campaign in the dark on critical issues and processes up till the time the primary kicked off. The ground rules governing the primary election ought to have been agreed upon and signed by all the parties involved, and such an agreement should not only be binding on all parties, but should also have been published and widely advertised in the print media. This is stipulated in Paragraph 8(b) of the PDP Electoral Guidelines 2010. The agreement on the special convention ground rules would have been one major way to ensure that the primary election process was objective, impartial, fair, just and not programmed to produce a predetermined end. But the PDP leadership refused to be guided by these basic democratic norms.
“Also, the list of delegates who would vote at the primary election ought to have been published and widely advertised in the print media prior to the primary as spelt out under Paragraph 8(b) of the P.D.P. Electoral Guidelines 2010, so as to forestall the list either being tampered with or its integrity being substantially compromised. But the list of delegates was sighted for the first time by members of the Atiku Campaign while voting was in progress. The list of delegates is crucial to the successful conduct of any primary election. It is as important as the list of Nigerian Voters which the INEC is required by law to publish before the conduct of the general election.”