The Oyo State chapter of the Social Democratic Party tasked the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) over its arrangements for the ongoing voter registration exercise describing it as ‘shoddy and anti-democratic’.
The party submitted that this is a design to ensure that majority of Nigerians who are displeased with the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) do not have tools to vote against it.
A statement signed by the state Publicity secretary of the party, Alhaji Akeem Azeez, said “it is a quite anti-democratic process to site registration centres only at INEC local government offices, that is, one per each local government.
“Democracy is not only designed to be pro-people but also to bring ease not hardship to the people. However, the decision of INEC to site one registration centre at each local government will cause a lot of hardship to prospective voters who are in their thousands in each local government and may eventually discourage them from performing one of their civic duties due to long queues under the sun.
“Moreover, some villagers would have to trek several kilometers to register. It is simply an anti-people procedure and should be discontinued.
“The previous registration exercise was done at 5620 polling units across the state which brought the centres closer to the people. Common sense dictates that an organisation of INEC’s stature and standing should improve on its process and procedure yearly but it is quite unfortunate that INEC’s process is retrogressive.
SDP then called on INEC to rescind its decision and site the registration centres at voting points across the country to encourage people to come out to register.
The party, however, used the opportunity to enjoin members of the public and prospective SDP supporters to proceed to designated registration centres to register pending the anticipated adjustment from INEC.
Packaged by Alice Egbedele
