NAIJA NEWS
Political parties contesting in the forthcoming general election have told the Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC) to keep to its timetable as scheduled for the polls which are in a few days.
According to them, they are aware of the threat posed by the challenges of the new naira policy and the cash crunch on the mobilisation of workers and logistics, but they are not in support of a shift in the election timetable.
Naija News reports that some of these political parties told The Punch that a shift in the INEC’s timetable won’t be logical.
The reactions as to if or not INEC should shift the election came up again on Wednesday when the INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in charge of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Yahaya Bello raised concern that the naira crisis might pose a challenge to the elections.
Bello was reported to have raised new fears when he spoke during the North-Central Stakeholders Round-table meeting on the 2023 general election organised by the Centre for Transparency Advocate.
However, political parties have rejected his position saying the INEC timetable must go as scheduled.
It was gathered that in its reaction, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) said the cash shortage was likely to affect planning for the polls but ruled out its potential to cause a postponement of the exercise.
The PDP’s Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Ibrahim Abdullahi submitted that “This has the tendency to affect planning and logistics, but postponement would not be logical for INEC because it is a critical government institution that has inexhaustible avenues for mobilising cash resources for an election.”
However, the Spokesperson of the Labour Party Presidential Campaign Council, Yunusa Tanko opined that INEC can pay ad-hoc workers for logistics and mobilisation through bank transfers, which can always be traced for accountability.
Tanko said “I don’t think it should be a problem. It should be done in such a way that people can access the transfer. That, for me, is the most important thing. If it is a transfer you are doing, let it be traceable. I don’t think the new naira policy should stop the election; rather, it should make the election more credible. Of course, we know the liquid cash cannot be accounted for…
