15 parties threaten to boycott elections

FIFTEEN political parties and five presidential candidates have threatened to pull out of the March 28 and April 11 elections if the Independent National Electoral Commission insist on using the card reader device.

The parties said the use of card readers for the elections as planned by INEC had a lot of implications which might negatively affect the credibility of the elections.

Three leaders from the protesting political parties signed a statement that was read at a media briefing in Abuja on Wednesday.

The signatories are, the National Chairman of the Mega Progressive Peoples Party, Dare Falade; presidential candidate of Peoples Party of Nigeria, Kelvin Alagoa; and Rafiu Salau of the Alliance for Democracy.

The spokesperson for the group and National Chairman, Advanced Congress of Democrats, Dr. Breakforth Onwubuya, said the concept of using card readers for the elections “has a lot of implications which may negatively impact on the conduct of a credible, free and fair elections.”

He said, “The first drawback is that this device is relatively a new technology that has not been tested or tried in a kind of mock election or previous formal elections prior to this time. This would have enabled the nation and the electoral umpire itself, to properly ascertain its workability and efficiency in the conduct of the real general elections.

“The decision by INEC to commence the test-run of the use of card readers in some of select states across the country on Saturday March 7, 2015, just less than three weeks to the commencement of the re-scheduled election, would not provide the commission enough time to rectify whatever anomaly that would likely arise from that exercise.

“Therefore, we the concerned group of leaders of political parties, presidential candidates, governorship and National Assembly candidates, hereby request INEC to stop forthwith the proposed use of the card reader for this March 28 and April 11 general elections or we may consider boycotting the election.”

“Moreover, if the card reader should develop some technical problems, there is a possibility that the consequences of such development would affect about 40 or 50 percent of the polling booths nationwide,” he added.