The plot continued to thicken for a postponement of the elections on Tuesday, when 16 out of the 26 registered political parties endorsed calls for a shift of dates for the polls slated for February 14 and 28, citing insecurity, issues with the distribution of permanent voters’ cards (PVCs) and the exodus of people from the cities to their villages.
Also, five of the 14 presidential candidates signed a statement urging the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to postpone the elections to a more appropriate date.
The parties are the United Democratic Party (UDP), Citizen Peoples Party (CPP), Peoples Party of Nigeria (PPN), Action Alliance (AA), Peoples Democratic Congress (PDC), Allied Party of Nigeria (ACPN), Labour Party (LP), Mega Progressive People’s Party (MPPP), United Party of Nigeria (UPN), Alliance for Democracy (AD), African Democratic Congress (ADC), Advanced Congress of Democrats (ACD), Democratic Peoples Party (DPP), New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP), Peoples Party of Nigeria (PPN) and Independent Democrat (ID).
The five presidential candidates who endorsed the postponement are Godson Okoye (UDP), Chief Sam Okoye (CPP), Prince C.O Allagoe (PPN), Tunde Anifowose (AA) and Ganiu Galadima (ACPN).
The political parties, in a resolution calling for the postponement, said: “Fellow Nigerians, we the concerned leaders of political parties, in the run up to the 2015 February general election, have observed some dangerous trends, which if not checked may negatively and adversely affect our democracy.”
The parties hinged their call for the postponement on security, distribution of PVCs and people deserting their residences for their villages.
They also threatened to boycott the elections if their position was not respected.
The leaders of the 16 parties called on the federal government to take the necessary steps to provide adequate security for Nigerians to go out and collect their PVCs in order to be able to exercise their civic and constitutional duty.
The parties said INEC should seriously consider shifting the date of elections to sometime in March or April, which would still not be against the provisions of Sections 25 and 26 of the Electoral Act.
“We are not urging INEC to do anything that is unlawful, illegal or unconstitutional. It is unfortunately becoming clear by the day that most Nigerians appear not to be ready for election but are ready for violence,” the parties said.
On what the shift in date would achieve, the parties said: “This shift in date, which does not in any way contravene the provisions of Section 25 and 26 of the Electoral Act will afford INEC enough time to distribute the remaining PVCs so that at least more than 98 per cent of the registered voters in the country would have collected their PVCs.
“In this regard the concerned political leaders should offer to assist the INEC in all necessary ways to ensure that these PVCs are collected on time for the rescheduled election.”
One of the representatives of the political parties said they took the decision against the position of the chairman of Inter-party Advisory Council (IPAC).
