The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) might not be favourably
disposed to going ahead with the March 28th presidential election after
all.
A report by Punch says the leadership of
the ruling party has already mapped out strategies aimed at ensuring
that the election do not hold at the re-scheduled date.
The
report claimed that the PDP was actually behind the new Young Democratic
Party (YDP), a party that came into the consciousness of Nigerians
after it won a court case compelling the Independent National Electoral
Commission (INEC) to re-print the ballot papers for the election so as
to accommodate them on Wednesday.
The YDP had in a press
conference on Thursday asked INEC to postpone the forthcoming general
election if it could not accommodate it on its ballot...
paper. The Federal
High Court in Abuja had also ordered the electoral umpire to register
YDP as a political party.
Speaking on behalf of the party, the National Publicity Secretary of YDP, Mr. Ugo Nwofor, said, “If
INEC does not have the appropriation for logistics for reprinting of
its ballot papers then INEC ought to within the constitutional provision
further re-schedule the general election so as to accommodate our
party.
“In
either of the two options, our party is ready, it has been a long
journey for YDP; we wish INEC would explore the first option.”
Moments
after the press briefing, one of the leaders of the YDP was sighted at
the national headquarters of the PDP in Abuja, where he said he had come
to confer with some of its officers.
In a confidential discussion with Punch, he was at the Wadata House to brief PDP chieftains on the success of their legal work.
The
next day, he told the publication on the telephone that they were
planning a fresh legal option to compel INEC to comply with the court
order.
According to him, “Recall that I was at the national
headquarters of the ruling party in Abuja on Thursday where I met our
partners. We are working together to move the nation forward and deepen
our renascent democracy.
“We have already fixed the
dates for our convention and we would pick our presidential and other
candidates for the elections. We expect INEC to give us a chance as
stated in the court order.”
However, it was learnt that one
of the strategies of the PDP is to head for the court and ask that the
presidential election be set aside, by pleading that YDP was excluded.
Efforts
made to speak with the National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Mr.
Olisa Metuh on the issue failed. He neither picked nor responded to a
text message sent to him.

No comments:
Post a Comment