The National Chairman, United Progressive Party (UPP), Chekwas Okorie, has thrown his weight behind the National Assembly for the proposed amendment of the laws guiding the order of elections starting with the 2019 general elections.
Recall that both chambers of the National Assembly agreed to change order of general elections through an amendment to the Electoral Act.
In a statement in Abuja, yesterday, Okorie said the political significance and the positive democratic implication of conducting the presidential election last as proposed cannot be over-emphasized.
He noted that over the years political parties, especially those in opposition have persistently canvassed for the present order that is being proposed, and that each time the Electoral Act was subjected to amendment, political parties always seized the opportunity to demand for this type of amendment.
The statement reads in part, “It is common knowledge that any party that won the presidential election since the commencement of the present democratic dispensation in 1999 always benefited from the bandwagon effect of winning overwhelmingly in subsequent elections.
“In all cases such party ended up dominating the National Assembly, majority of the states and the state assemblies in Nigeria.
“In this way the opposition political parties are weakened to the extent that the state assemblies and National Assembly never developed outside the whims and caprices of the ruling political party and its executive arm. The legislature became more rubber stamp of the executive arm of government. “
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