Weak internal democracy, violent conduct of congresses dangerous to 2019—Jega
Considering what he observed as early warning signals, former Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega, has called on all political parties to revive internal democracy so as to save the country from danger come 2019 general elections.
In his lecture at the 2018 Democracy Day in Abuja, Jega fingered the violence which marred recent party congresses in some states as curious pointer to possible breaches come 2019.
Business Hilights recalls that the erstwhile Vice Chancellor of Bayero University, Kano (BUK), managed the 2015 general elections.
However, to tame the dangers ahead of 2019 election, Prof Jega called on security agencies to imbibe professionalism, neutrality and impartiality in the course of discharging their duties. He noted that the relative success recorded during the 2015 polls was made possible by the active engagement of what he called the “inter-agency consultative committee and the commitment of the security agencies to do their best under very difficult circumstances.”
“I am not saying there were no bridges, in fact with the benefit of hindsight, there were many bridges but there were professionalism and neutrality during the 2015 general elections. Admitting that that the electoral umpire was currently confronted with challenges, he noted that the violence recorded during the congresses of the parties spells great danger for the nation.
In his lecture, Jega regretted that the inability of political parties to observe internal democracy and conduct peaceful congresses was a dangerous sign to what to expect in next year’s elections.
He said “If political parties cannot organise their internal elections peacefully, how can they engage the other parties with civility in the general elections? It is very important that this is addressed because if there is crisis in the elections, some of these issues are outside the scope of the electoral commission but in the end it is the electoral commission that gets the blame.
“It is very important that we improve our systemic mechanisms of addressing violence and conflicts related to elections and in particular, improving the score of internal democracy within political parties.
“We may be running out of time, we must try harder and do everything possible within the shortest time.
“The second thing that needs to be addressed is the spate of hate speeches by political actors, religious leaders. These unbridled utterances by opinion leaders, religious leaders and political leaders facilitate electoral violence during general elections. So, the trend has to be tamed.
“Again, we must ensure that the rule of law is complied with. So, it is very important to check this challenge. Otherwise, the integrity of the 2019 elections would be undermined,” Jega noted.
