A Non Governmental Organization of the Catholic Church, the Justice Development and Peace Maker’s Centre (JDPMC), has called an electoral reform before the 2023 general elections.
The NGO said the reform should come at least two years ahead of the 2023 general elections.
The NGO also said the reforms should touch a legal framework on campaign finance of the 2010 Electoral Act and should pay attention to candidates’ personal expenditure during the electoral process.
The General Coordinator of JDPMC in Osun State, Rev. Father Peter Akinkunmi, spoke at a press conference and public presentation on the findings of the NGO from the nationwide monitoring of campaign finance of the main political parties and their candidates for the 2019 presidential election in Osogbo.
According to him, the JDPMC collaborated with the United State Agency for International Development (USAID), International Foundation Electoral Systems (IFES), and the UKaid on the project.
He noted that their findings revealed that the major political parties, the People’s Democratic Party and the ruling All Progressives Congress, spent more that what is stipulated in the electoral laws
He said it was the responsibility of every Nigerian to ensure electoral laws are protected and obeyed.
He said the JDPMC findings revealed that at the last presidential election the All Progressive Congress (APC) spent N9,740,976,754.00 while the People Democratic Party (PDP) spent N5,379,786,046.00.
Akinkunmi accused the APC of implementing some of its programmes during the campaign with public funds.
Advocating for establishment of an active and efficient inter-agency mechanism for the tracking of campaign finance, he said “since the problems related to campaign finance is multidimensional and requires active interagency efforts to combat it, there is a need for Inter-agency committee to be set up by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to manifest political will and develop drastic improvement in the enforcement of the campaign finance laws established by the provisions of the 1999 Constitution and the 2010 Electoral Acts.
“The government, international communities and international NGOs should support grassroots civil society organizations (CSOs) in building their capacity to carry out effective campaign monitoring at all levels of our politics. The I international community should evolve sanctions that could enable many state develop the political will to regulate campaign finance as it did with military dictatorship.
“Improvement in the national cash policy; improvement of banking security with the introduction of Bank Verification Number (BVN) and Treasury Single Account (TSA) as mitigated reckless movement of fund from one bank account to another. Most questionable transactions, especially during the period of election are done with raw cash. We recommend a serious review of cash movement policy to ensure that internal movement of cash by non financial institutions are monitored and that effective surveillance is set on activities of financial institutions at all times.
“Given the poor level of awareness on campaign finance laws by the public we call on the INEC and the National Orientation Agency (NOA) to pursue a robust public awareness on campaign finance laws and their importance in the democratic process. This is possible through effective partnership with CSOs and the media.
He said: “By tracking and determine the market values of mega rallies, small rallies, road shows, meetings, billboard advertisement, electronic billboard advertisement, print media advertisement, banners, posters, handbills, radio/TV publicity and adverts, campaign vehicles and vote buying; we found out that the APC spent N9,740,976,754.00 and the PDP spent N5,379,786,046.00.
“However, we do not imply that the APC conclusively spent more than the PDP in the campaign. This can only be determined by other researches or investigations that exhaustively deal with all licit and illicit components of campaign expenditures. What we have here are simply the estimated expenditure on advert and publicity and other relevant items mentioned earlier during the period of the campaign. Please note that this findings are estimates and not actual as we relied mainly on sampling and data analysis.”
Akinkunmi, who also recommend criminalizing vote buying in the electoral process, said that the only way to eliminate the menace is to ensure there is a severe punishment for culprits.
He said: “Vote buying should be criminalised with severe prison sentence and with no option of fine. So, all hands must be on deck to ensure the emergence of a more effective legal framework and enforcement mechanism, at least two years before the 2023 general election.”
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