APGA Chairman Faults Provisions In Electoral Act, Seeks Urgent Review

The national chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Sly Ezeokenwa, has faulted certain provisions in the electoral act, urging the National Assembly to review some of its subsections.

Speaking with newsmen in Lagos, Ezeokenwa said Section 77, which mandates political parties to maintain a digitised membership register containing details such as name, sex, date of birth, address, state, local government, ward, polling unit, national identification number and passport photograph, has forced APGA to commence a nationwide revalidation exercise for its members.

“The data we captured before didn’t contain the polling unit and national identification number, and that is what necessitated the revalidation exercise that commenced on March 1,” he said.

He explained that the party had earlier digitised its membership database nationwide in 2024 but had to update the register to comply with the new legal requirements, noting that members would only need to synchronise their National Identification Number and polling unit details with existing records.

Ezeokenwa argued that certain provisions in Section 77 improperly regulate party membership, stressing that the law should not determine who qualifies to vote in a party’s primaries.

“In trying to over-legislate the internal affairs of political parties, the Act now says that only those whose names are contained in the register submitted to INEC can vote or be voted for in the primaries. That is very wrong on all fronts.

“Issues of membership are entirely the internal affairs of political parties. You don’t determine for me who my member is. It is none of your business. Even if someone becomes a member for one hour, the Constitution only says you must belong to a political party; it is the party that determines whether you are qualified to run on its platform,” he said.

The APGA chairman therefore called on lawmakers to amend the controversial subsections of the provision, saying, “I think this is a good forum to call on the National Assembly to expunge subsections 4, 5 and 6 of Section 77 because they interfere with the internal administration of political parties.”

He also weighed in on the controversy surrounding electronic transmission of election results, noting that many critics misunderstand the concept and often confuse transmission with electronic collation.

“Electronic transmission of results simply means that you scan the result sheet and send it to the INEC Result Viewing Portal. It is not the same thing as electronic collation. The primary source of collation in Nigeria is still manual collation,” he explained.

Ezeokenwa further argued that the controversy over the issue after the 2023 Nigerian presidential election was largely misplaced, insisting that the election remained credible despite criticisms surrounding the IREV portal.

“In my opinion, followed by verifiable facts, the 2023 election is the best election ever conducted in the history of Nigeria. It was an election where several serving governors lost their senatorial bids and ordinary citizens won seats because the votes counted,” he said.

The APGA chairman added that while electoral laws in Nigeria are largely adequate, the real challenge lies with those responsible for implementing them, urging the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to continue improving the credibility of elections in the country.