New Telegraph

Nigerians losing confidence in electoral system, TMG warns

The Transition Monitoring Group (TMG), a civil Society organisation (CSO), has warned that Nigerians are losing confidence in the nation’s electoral system as a result of “malpractice, manipulation, violence, commercialisation and privatisation” of electoral process by political parties and political offices for self-centred interests.

Chairman of the group, Auwal Musa Rafsanjani, at a press conference in Abuja on Thursday, decried the violence, which has characterised the electoral process and called on the Federal Government to urgently address the multifaceted security challenges before the conduct of the 2023 election to prevent voter apathy that may arise due to the inability of voters to travel to exercise their civic rights, the safety of electoral materials and election officials and the credibility of election results.

Rafsanjani condemned the attack on the Nigeria Defence Academy, calling on the government to nip the security issue in the bud.

“We, however, note with concern that the Federal Government and military have been treating the issue of our national security with levity while all geopolitical zones continue to bleed in a manner that portends grave danger to our hard-earned democracy,” the TMG Chairman said.

According to him, corruption in Nigeria’s electoral processes is showing no signs of abating as politicians continued to flaunt unaccounted campaign spending and party financing by using illegitimate funds as the sole means of winning voters over.

He called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and other relevant agencies to tackle the menace to allow voters to form a more objective opinion of the people they are to vote for.

Rafsanjani noted that since 1999, credible local government elections in Nigeria have been illusory, adding that the processes and outcome of the local government elections have remained the will of the state and ruling party rather than reflecting the consent and aspirations of the people as the electorate.

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