PDP unhappy with mandatory direct primaries in new Electoral Amendment Bill

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has expressed its concern with the latest version of the Electoral Amendment Bill that stipulates direct primaries for nomination of party candidates for elections.

The Senate and House of Representatives passed the version of the bill during separate plenaries on Tuesday, November 9, 2021.

The passage followed weeks of concurrence negotiations, as only the House approved of that provision when the bill was passed separately in July.

The PDP said the bill violates the constitutional rights of parties to determine internal processes.

"Our party holds that it is the inalienable right of each political party, within the context of our constitutional democracy, to decide its form of internal democratic practices including the processes of nominating its candidates for elections at any level," the party said.

The indirect primaries mode of nomination is the most commonly used in Nigeria since the return of democracy in 1999.

It involves a small pool of elected delegates who elect party candidates. The process has been fraught with controversy for years, particularly criticised for how it's easy for anyone with influence in a party to buy and control their votes.

The direct mode involves all registered party members voting in the primary election, and has gained widespread acceptance within the All Progressives Congress (APC).

18 state chapters of the party used direct primaries to elect candidates for the 2019 general elections after they were allowed to pick between that or the indirect method that the other 18 chapters, and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), choose.

The PDP said in its Tuesday statement that the new provision in the bill is an imposition of the APC, as the party controls both chambers of the National Assembly.

The party said its final decision on the amendment will be announced within the next 48 hours.

President Muhammadu Buhari is expected to sign a clean copy of the bill, after numerous rejections of electoral amendment bills forwarded to him.