Violent party congresses, danger signals to 2019 general elections – Jega

Former Chairman of the Independent National Commission (INEC), Attahiru Jega, on Monday identified the altercations and violence that trailed recent outcome of All Progressive Congress ( APC) nationwide congresses as danger signals that the 2019 general elections may not be hitch free.

Jega posited that the crises trailing the APC Congresses is a clear signal that the ruling party APC may not be able to guarantee the conduct of free and fair general elections next year.

The former INEC Chairman, reputed to have conducted the election that led to the change of government that secured victory for an opposition party in Nigeria for the first time in history, stated this while delivering the 2018 Democracy Day Lecture at the International Congress center, Abuja.

“If political parties cannot organise their internal elections peacefully, how can they engage the other parties with civilities in the general elections. It is very very important that this is addressed because if there is crisis in the elections, some of these issues outside the scope of electoral commission but in the end it is the electoral commission that gets blamed.

Jega also listed what he described as “increasing incidents of hate speech” as other factors that must be checked ahead of the 2019 general elections

” The second thing we need to address is the recent spate of hate speeches by political actors, religious leaders, it is this unbridled utterances by opinion leaders, religious leaders, political leaders that facilitated electoral violence in general elections. So these has be tamed. Again, we must serious measures that the rule of law is complied with, so effective prosecution is very very important to mitigate against this challenge. Otherwise worth the intensity this is going right now it will undermine the integrity of the 2019 elections.”

Jega also cautioned present administration against focusing too much on embezzlement and theft under the current anti-graft was adding that the war should also tackle “bribe giving and taking in states and federal government institutions”

Others include ” the delay in the passage the framework for the conduct of the 2019 exercise was also a risk to the election

He noted that the seven days provision in the constitution given for the conduct of run-off where necessary, adding that “it is an impossible task as no such election can be done so short a time”

Tony Ailemen, Abuja.

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