With over 68 parties, logo recognition crisis, invalid votes’ll hit 2019 elections—Igini
The Akwa Ibom Resident Electoral Commissioner, Mike Igini has opened up on the chances of 2019 general election being marred by crisis ranging from issues in identifying party logos which can lead to high number of invalid votes cast during the 2019 general elections.
It would be recalled that earlier in the week, the chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof Mahmud Yakubu had revealed that whereas there are 68 political parties whose logos will be included in the ballot papers, the commission is currently processing the registration of over 130 political parties.
In an interview, Igini, a human right lawyer said “Many voters may be unable to differentiate parties with similar or close names or logos even among the elites resulting in wrong thumb-printing and invalid votes when they have to search through a ballot paper with 68 names and more”.
He said “Too many political parties also fragment capable candidates both for the new parties and the older parties from where some people are likely to join the new parties.
“It will also fragment the votes of existing and new parties because there will be a situation where several political parties will be promoting similar policies, ideologies and agenda.
According to him, “Excessive fragmentation has drawbacks because as parties subdivide, the country become harder to govern, polarization along ethnic, religious and other fault-lines increases as fringe parties harden along such agenda to gain the support of some large voting bloc, even when such agenda may be counterproductive to national cohesion.
“Where bigger parties are willing and responsive to public opinion to embark on reform and throw up new set of actors with new ideas and values in tandem with prevailing public desires and expectations, they may get things done better than a coalition of smaller parties, where discipline may be a tougher challenge, often because it may include strange bedfellows as we see in Nigeria.
“So instead of increasing real choices, multiplying parties would make room for politicians to hide the fact that what they are actually doing is using the parties as vehicles to gain patronage rather than meeting the policy needs of voters.
He said “Except we have regional autonomy of federating units where the diversity of parties will create diversities that can meet specific regional needs and therefore reduce the central fission tendencies, the multiplicity of parties will only increase the fight for the jackpot at the centre where political relevance is most important to gain ground locally.
“Therefore, peripherally if we allow more governance devolution multiple parties can have benefits, but where devolution is asphyxiated, the entire political struggle will end up at the center with the pitfalls I have highlighted as we approach 2019 election,” Igini averred.
