In line with the Electoral Act 2022, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) rolled out guidelines for Political Parties which will guide them in the conduct of their various Party Primaries in line with the Electoral Act and the party’s constitution. INEC also encouraged the various Political Parties to obey the party’s guidelines for conduct of primaries.
The Electoral Act 2022 allows political parties to adopt various types of primaries they so desire which are direct, indirect and consensus mode of primaries. Most of the Political Parties have opted to use the Indirect Primaries as their preferred one.
Section 84(5)(a)(i) of the Electoral Act, 2022 provides thus on use of Indirect Primaries for the presidential primaries:
(5) A political party that adopts the system of indirect primaries for the choice of its candidate shall adopt the procedure outlined below:
(a) in the case of nominations to the position of Presidential candidate, the political party shall –
(i) hold a Special Presidential Convention at a designated centre in the Federal Capital Territory or any other place within the Federation that is agreed to by the National Executive Committee of the party where delegates shall vote for aspirants of their choice;
The above underlined portion of the act is also applicable to primaries for electing the Governorship candidate for a political party, Senatorial candidate for a political party and House of Reps and House of Assembly candidates for a political party as can be seen in Sub Section (5)(b),(c) & (d) of section 84 of the Electoral Act, 2022.
WHO ARE DELEGATES WHO VOTE FOR THESE ASPIRANTS
Section 84 (8) of the Electoral Act, 2022 reads thus: “A political party that adopts the system of indirect primaries for the choice of its candidate shall clearly outline in its constitution and rule on the procedure for the democratic election of delegates to vote at the convention, congress or meeting.”
From the provision of the Electoral Act above, it is clear that DELEGATES are persons who have been elected to vote at Party Conventions, Party Congresses or Party Meetings for the purpose of electing a representative for the said Political Party for representation at various elections (Presidential, Governorship, Senatorial, House of Reps. as the case may be).
The election of these persons to be delegates are done at the least level of the political party called the WARD level.
Before the enactment of the Electoral Act, 2022, there were Delegates who were called “statutory delegates” and whom by virtue of their position were automatically and statutorily provided to vote at Political party congresses/primaries and they include: The president and vice-president and the former office holders of these offices; Governors and their deputies; Senators, members of house of representatives and of state assemblies; Local government chairmen and their deputies; Ward Councilors; Chairman of the party in all the 774 local government areas.
However, the above statutory delegates were not captured in the Electoral Act, 2022. In fact because of the above, there is a Bill for an amendment of the Electoral Act, 2022, which was been passed by the House of Assembly and is currently pending before the President, to capture these statutory delegates.
It is pertinent to note that for one to be a delegate, that person must be a registered member and a card carrying member of the said Political party.
For example, the leadership of the PDP announced that delegates who vote at the primaries and national convention “shall be those democratically elected for that purpose only” and consequently, “those qualified and eligible to vote as delegates in the forthcoming primaries and national convention of our great party, the PDP, are the three Ad Hoc delegates per ward, elected at the ward congresses and one national delegate per local government, elected at the local government area congresses”.
Hence for one to be eligible to vote at the party congress as a delegate, he or she either must have been democratically elected at the Ward level and also democratically elected at the Local Government Area Congress. Also, because these delegates are only elected for a specific purpose which is to elect candidates for their parties, they are called Ad-hoc Delegates. A congress, however, is a meeting comprising of party officials of that area, be it Ward, LGA or state who have come together to carry out a particular assignment for a political party.
Except President Muhammadu Buhari signs the Electoral Act 2022 Amendment Bill, it is only the ad-hoc delegates that political parties can use at their various national conventions.
The ruling Political party themselves, the APC have decide to use 2,340 ad-hoc delegates that came from three delegates from each of the 774 local government areas and six area council of the Federal capital territory while the PDP settled for just 774 delegates. One delegate from each of the 774 local government areas of Nigeria.
We have seen that being a delegate is not just a title but it is a duty and a burden placed on a member of a political party and it should not be seen as an avenue to sell votes but needs to be seen as a means of effecting change. Political Party Primaries should not be turned to a game of the highest bidder to delegates so that the delegates would not, one day, look back and question whether they made the right choice for their party or for the Country.
By Davidson Duru Esq.
