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Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
The People’s Democratic Party ( PDP), on Monday, decried the involvement of military personnel in the conduct of elections, stating that it is inimical to the country’s democracy.
The PDP National Chairman, Uche Secondus, stated this at a meeting between the opposition party’s National Working Committee (NWC) and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) monitoring team at the party’s national secretariat in Abuja.
Secondus said it is unfortunate that despite a subsisting court judgment, which bared the military from being directly involved in elections, the armed forces have allegedly usurped the duties of the police during elections.
The PDP chairman urged the INEC to urgently initiate a reform of the country’s electoral process, to legalise electronic voting in the country as well as remove the military as the primary security agency during elections.
He noted that there is a need for the electoral body to be at the forefront of electoral reforms in the country, as the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) is allegedly not keen on the reform of the electoral process.
According to him, “despite a standing lawful court ruling that military should be kept at a distance during elections as secondary security, we have all watched how they not only took over the primary security role from the Police, but in some instances dictated and even connived with some INEC officials.”
