Political Parties Failing Democratic Standards In Primaries — Centre

The Peering Advocacy and Advancement Centre in Africa (PAACA) has accused political parties of undermining democratic standards through flawed primary elections, warning that weak internal electoral processes are contributing to Nigeria’s wider electoral credibility crisis.

The organisation also attributed the growing internal crises within Nigeria’s political parties to weakened leadership structures and the increasing influence of powerful political figures over party organs.

The executive director of PAACA, Ezenwa Nwagwu, told journalists in Abuja that political parties had failed to uphold the same standards of transparency and accountability they demand from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) during general elections.

According to him, political parties are themselves “electoral managers” because they conduct primary elections that produce candidates for public office, yet many of the processes observed across party structures fall short of accepted democratic principles.

“The political parties, in some sense, are electoral managers themselves because they conduct primary elections. The expectation is that they will use the same measure with which they hold those conducting the general(secondary) election accountable in managing their own elections,” he said.

Nwagwu argued that many party primaries observed in recent weeks lacked proper accreditation procedures and failed to reflect credible electoral standards.

He raised concerns about the non-use of digital membership registers, which political parties are legally required to maintain and submit to INEC, questioning whether these registers were genuinely used during accreditation exercises at ward congresses and conventions.

“The law mandates political parties to maintain digital membership registers, and parties have admitted submitting those registers to INEC. But did we see proper accreditation? Did we see the deployment of the digital membership registers in the processes we observed?” he queried.

He further questioned INEC’s oversight role in ensuring compliance with the provisions governing party membership and accreditation processes.

“If the registers were not deployed, what then is the oversight responsibility of INEC? How do we even determine the authenticity of the registers?” he asked.

Nwagwu alleged that in some instances, participation in the primaries appeared open to individuals outside party structures, thereby undermining the integrity of the process.

“In some places, it looked like they just took everybody in the community to come out and vote,” he said.

The PAACA executive director lamented what he described as the disproportionate attention given to general elections while primary elections, which determine who eventually appears on the ballot, receive little scrutiny from the media, civil society groups and election observers.

“We are overly focused on the secondary election, which is the general election, but we are completely absent in the primary election process whether as journalists, civil society organisations or observers,” he said.

According to him, greater scrutiny of party primaries would improve leadership recruitment and strengthen democratic governance in the country.

“Political parties present candidates to Nigerians, not INEC. If we pay the same level of attention to primary elections, especially the process that produces candidates, we will get better democratic outcomes,” he added.

Nwagwu also accused politicians and political parties of being central actors in electoral misconduct, arguing that security agencies and INEC are often unfairly blamed for problems rooted in the conduct of politicians.

“The perpetrators of everything that diminishes our elections are politicians and their political parties. But because they are the dispensers of patronage and engage in nauseating cronyism, society often avoids holding them accountable,” he stated.

He called for stronger public scrutiny of political parties and urged Nigerians to pay closer attention to internal party democracy as part of broader electoral reform efforts.