Following the postponement of the 2019 general elections, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has called for reforms of Nigeria’s electoral system. It also asked Nigerians to blame successive governments from 1999 and the National Assembly for the postponement of the elections.
The Independent National Electoral Commission had postponed the presidential election to Saturday, February 23 while the state elections will also hold a week later on March 9.
But SERAP, in a statement today signed by SERAP deputy director Kolawole Oluwadare said that after the coming elections, it would pursue appropriate legal action against the government in power and the National Assembly leadership for the catalogue of breaches of constitutional and international obligations, and seek effective remedies for the citizens.
It alleged that Nigeria’s electoral process is deliberately skewed in favour of politicians’ interests, who continue to profit from the corruption and impunity that have characterized the process since 1999, and against those of the citizens.
Reacting to calls for the resignation of the INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakuku, SERAP noted that Nigerians should rather put pressure on the authorities to comprehensively reform, upgrade and modernize our electoral system and processes, noting that otherwise, citizens’ right to participate in the governance system will remain a ‘hollow right.
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