By Folorunso Alagbede, Abuja
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has called on Senators and members of the House of Representatives to shun partisanship and vote in the national interest on section 50 (2) of the Electoral Act amendment bill, which dwells on electronic transmission of results.
The party made the call in a statement yesterday by its National Publicity Secretary, Mr Kola Ologbondiyan in Abuja.
The PDP said that it has come to its attention that certain interests are plotting a rejection of electronic transfer of results on the floors of both chambers of the National Assembly on Thursday.
The main opposition party asserted that it behooves on every Nigerian, particularly the federal lawmakers, to work on the improvement of the nation’s electoral processes in order to engender free, fair, transparent and credible elections.
The party insisted that there is no part of Nigeria or any local government headquarters that communication network does not exist and function, to warrant the exclusion of electronic transmission of election results from the law.
According to the PDP, “It is imperative to add that with the technology proposed by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), even where the network is slow, it does not stop the transmission process from arriving at the collation Centre.
“The PDP therefore urges the lawmakers not to allow themselves to be swayed by any one or any interest bent on conducting our election in the manipulative manner as desired by undemocratic elements.
“The party calls on all Nigerians to remain at alert and be ready to use every legitimate means available and acceptable within our laws to resist this move to further strangulate our electoral process”, it said.
