A campaign venue
The All Progressives Congress and the Peoples Democratic Party have vowed to continue with their campaigns.
Political parties participating in the 2019 general elections have
said they will not obey the directive of the Independent National
Electoral Commission that they should stop campaigns after the
postponement of the presidential and National Assembly elections on
Saturday morning.
INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, had on Saturday while giving
reasons for the postponement of the elections, said campaigns had ended
on Thursday.
But the All Progressives Congress, the Peoples Democratic Party and
the Coalition of United Political Parties, on Sunday said they would
never obey the order, saying that they would continue their campaigns.
We will continue our campaigns – APC, PDP
A report by the Hausa Service of the British Broadcasting
Corporation, monitored in Kano, on Sunday, quoted the National Chairman
of the APC, Adams Oshiomhole and a Director in the Atiku Campaign
Organisation, Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso as saying the electoral laws
allowed for campaigns to go on until 24 hours before polls.
Kwankwaso said, “Nobody asked that the elections should be
delayed. So, since the elections have been postponed, they (INEC) should
allow everybody to campaign.
“Everybody knows that what the electoral law says is that
campaigns can continue until 24 hours to the elections so, since the
elections have been postponed by one week, political parties should
continue with their campaigns.”
Kwankwaso, who said he was certain nobody was happy with INEC’s
decision to postpone the elections, prayed that such would not repeat
itself on Saturday.
To give fillip to its position, the PDP on Sunday said it took the
decision to re-open its campaigns after due consideration of the
provision of the Electoral Act.
The PDP National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, in a
statement, said the PDP rejected what he called the wrongful
administrative prohibition of open campaigns by INEC.
He said, “Our position is predicated on the clear provision of
Section 99 (1) of the Electoral Act, which stipulated that “for the
purposes of this Act, the period of campaigning in public by every
political party shall commence 90 days before polling day and end 24
hours prior to that day.
“The clear import of this provision, in the current situation,
is that given the postponement of the elections to February 23, the 24
hours requirement for closure of all public campaigns falls on the
midnight of February 21.”
The BBC reported that Oshiomhole said the electoral law allowed for campaigns until 24 hours before the commencement of polls.
He said, “INEC cannot go contrary to what the law says.
Everyone knows that campaigns can only be suspended 24 hours to an
election, I will continue with campaigns on Sunday (yesterday) because
if we don’t campaign, people will not come out and vote.
“We will tell the people what happened has happened. Let them
come out and vote for the President (Muhammadu Buhari). For one week, if
we don’t talk, people will forget; we will campaign.”
CUPP asks opposition parties to resume campaigns for Atiku
On its part, the CUPP asked its members to shun INEC’s directive and resume campaigns ahead of the Saturday’s elections.
CUPP, in a statement by its national spokesman, Imo Ugochinyere, also said Yakubu’s position was unconstitutional.
He argued that since the presidential election had been moved to
Saturday, political parties were at liberty to resume campaigns till
midnight on Thursday.
Ugochinyere, therefore, asked members of CUPP to resume campaigns
from Sunday (yesterday) and mobilise voters for the presidential
candidate of the PDP, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.
We will take final position on electioneering today – INEC
But reacting to the parties’ defiance to the commission’s order,
INEC said it would take a final decision on whether or not political
parties could resume campaigns for the elections on Monday (today).
The Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman, Rotimi Oyekanmi,
who disclosed this in an interview with one of our correspondents on
Sunday, said the meeting of the commission’s management would determine
whether the electoral body would shift its ground on its earlier
decision on campaigns or not.
Oyekanmi in the interview with The PUNCH said, “On the issue of
campaigns, the commission will meet tomorrow (Monday) and take a
decision on the matter. On the issue of Zamfara State APC candidates
appearing on the ballot papers, I have no comments on that at the
moment.”
Falana faults INEC on campaign ban
However, a Lagos-based lawyer, Mr Femi Falana (SAN), called for the
unbundling of INEC. This, he said, would have averted the last-minute
postponement of the elections originally scheduled to hold last
Saturday.
Falana, in a statement he issued in the aftermath of the
rescheduling of the polls, also criticised INEC’s decision to stop
campaigns by parties.
He said political parties were by Section 99 of the Electoral Act
allowed to campaign up till 24 hours to the new date of elections.
According to him, with the delay of the elections by one week,
political parties’ campaign period had changed and would only end 24
hours to the elections.
Falana stated, “Meanwhile, INEC which has delayed the general
elections by seven days is alleged to have turned round to ban political
parties and their candidates from further campaigning for votes.
“With due respect, INEC has not paid attention to Section 99 of
the Electoral Act which provides that the period of campaigning in
public by political parties shall end 24 hours before polling day.
“Since elections have been delayed, the period of campaign has
also changed and will end 24 hours to the new polling day. Therefore,
the limitation of campaign imposed by INEC should be reversed without
any delay.”
Falana quoted Section 26 of the Electoral Act as saying, “an
election may be postponed if a serious breach of peace or violence is
likely to occur or on account of natural disaster or other emergencies.” He said the postponement of the elections on account of logistical or operational reasons was unjustifiable.
He added that the APC and the PDP should share in the blame for the
postponement due to their acts of imposition of candidates, which he
said, led to court orders changing the candidates of parties on election
eve.
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Via Punch Metro
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