PDP threatens to boycott 2019 elections

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), yesterday in Abuja said it was consulting on whether to boycott the 2019 general election.


PDP National Chairman Uche Secondus, stated this when he received a delegation of a Joint International Election Observation Mission fielded by two main American international civil agencies, the National Democratic Institute, (NDI) and the International Republican Institute (IRI).

Secondus said the party had been calling on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct a free, fair and transparent election in accordance with the constitution of the country.

He, however, said with Ekiti experience, PDP believed that some INEC staff had been compromised while the commission and security agents were directly involved in the alleged manipulation.

The national chairman stressed the need to restore the citizens’ confidence in the electoral process.

“As a matter of fact, we did not contest against the All Progressives Congress (APC), we contested against the security agencies and INEC.

“Moving forward, if nothing is done to restore the confidence of ordinary Nigerians and other political parties, then it may be difficult to accept the results of 2019 general election, no matter what the outcome may be.

“Unless it is transparent, free and fair and it is a recipe for crises.

“We believe that if we are not sure that both INEC and security agencies will be transparent and that they will not take side, we are consulting as to whether we shall participate or not.

Secondus said that prior to the Ekiti State election, PDP protested to the National Assembly and INEC office to demand for free and fair election.

He said that PDP thought that the election could be better because Ekiti was one of the smallest states in the country.

“However, Ekiti was militarised by the presence of army, the presence of police, of course over 30, 000.

“Our members were harassed, arrested and detained over the night. All of these things happened in the suburbs,” Secondus alleged.

What are your thoughts? Kindly share with us below