Atiku urges opposition to unite in pursuit of electoral reforms

By Rita Iliya

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has called on opposition political parties to unite and collectively pursue electoral reforms, particularly on the issue of electronic transmission of results.

Atiku said this in an interview with newsmen shortly after a visit to retired Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, former military president, in Minna on Tuesday.

The former Vice President said this while faulting electronic and manual transmission of election results as approved by Senate on Tuesday.

“There is a need for all opposition political parties to come together to pursue this issue.

“We should not allow it to rest where some people want it to rest. I do not support that,” Atiku said as he noted that the manual and hybrid transmission of election result as approved by the Senate as potentially threat to the country’s electoral system.

The former Vice President said that Nigerians had anticipated a fully electronic transmission of election results at all levels.

According to him, the hybrid system could compromise the integrity of elections and create unnecessary confusion in the collation of results.

“What Nigerians were expecting was electronic transmission of results across the various levels of the election.

“What we got instead was a mixture of electronic and manual transmission, which is going to cause more confusion and could jeopardise our electoral transmission system,” he said.

He stressed that real-time electronic transmission of results remained the best option for credible elections in the country.

Meanwhile, the Senate has constituted a 12-member Electoral Act Conference Committee to harmonise differences in the proposed amendments to the Electoral Act.

The committee is expected to interface with its counterpart in the House of Representatives to reconcile discrepancies in the amendment bill and produce a unified version for final legislative approval.

President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, announced the members of the committee on Tuesday during an emergency plenary session.

The conference committee will review areas of divergence between the versions passed by both chambers of the National Assembly and resolve contentious clauses before presenting a harmonised document for adoption.

Atiku said that the visit to Babangida was purely a customary one of paying respect to a statesman.

He dismissed speculations about his political ambitions ahead of the 2027 general elections.

“The issue of whether I will be contesting the 2027 election has not even arisen,” he said.

The former vice president disclosed that, his party, the African Democratic Congress (ADC), was currently focused on strengthening its structures nationwide.

According to him, the ADC is working to ensure that its organisational framework is firmly rooted from the ward level, local government and state levels up to the national level.

“We are busy mobilising people and registering them at the same time,” he said.

Atiku added that the ADC constitution does not provide for zoning of political offices.

(NAN)