FORMER President Goodluck Jonathan has said the country should modify its electoral laws to avoid a repeat of the 2019 polls in 2023.
He also said an individual shouldn’t have the power to appoint all members of the election tribunals.
Jonathan, who said these during a lecture/book presentation to mark the second term inauguration of Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike in Port Harcourt on Monday, added that allowing one person to constitute the tribunals would erode confidence in the system.
He said, “The judicial process where one person constitutes all the election tribunals to hear petitions is not right. It is difficult in a democracy for somebody to be extremely neutral.
“In one way or the other, somebody close to you will be in one party or the other. The only way to be above is to make sure that one person does not have the power to constitute tribunals to listen to all cases.”
“The parliamentarians who have won elections to go the National Assembly should take a look at what happened in the 2019 elections. We must modify our laws to make sure that in the 2023 elections, some of these things don’t repeat,” The Cable quoted Jonathan as saying.
“If democracy must endure in Africa, then the process leading to elections and the conduct of elections must be done in a way that people will have confidence in the system.”
The former Bayelsa State governor said if democracy must endure in the country, the democratic process must be developed in such a way that people would have confidence in the electoral process.
Jonathan said despite the challenges, Nigeria must embrace electronic voting, describing electronic voting as the ultimate going forward.
He said the continent must come up with a minimum standard for the establishment of an election management body.
The ex-Vice-President said for the purpose of confidence building for credible elections, one person should not have the power to constitute an election management body.
However, he called for the enthronement of independent security agencies that would provide security during elections.
Punch
