Cross carpeting among candidates must be proscribed – Former INEC Chair, Jega

Attahiru Jega, a former Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC has said the law must proscribe cross-carpeting among candidates standing for any elections in Nigeria.

Jega who was speaking at Citizens’ Townhall on Electoral Reforms, jointly organized by a monitoring group, Yiaga Africa and the European Union in Abuja, on Tuesday, November 28 said the amendment must be effected in the 2022 Electoral Act.

He said the trend where candidates cross from one political party to another was undermining the fundamental process of the nation’s democracy.

Jega, a professor of political science at Bayero University, Kano also advocated the unbundling of the electoral body, INEC, as well as review in the appointment process of Chairman and Resident Electoral Commissioners RECs of the Commission.

He insisted that the 2022 Electoral Act is the best we have had as a country, saying there is still room for reforms.

His words, “If we want to improve politics and deepen our democratic system, there will be a need to proscribe cross carpeting. The challenges they(candidates) face cross carpeting make them undermine the fundamental process of democracy.

“We have seen this trend where even now Executive Governors elected under one party, move without consultation to another party. We need to ensure that in the new electoral act moving forward, we need to proscribe that aspect because it is destroying the essence of democracy.

“The appointment of the chairman and RECs is another aspect that should be reviewed. This should be backed by the legislature because it will ensure there is full screening and verification to determine the integrity of the personality in those positions.

“I also support the unbundling of INEC and we need to review how people and political parties can present candidates for elections, otherwise in a particular election we will continue to have elections where we have multiple candidates who cannot score significant votes but end up wasting resources that goes into conducting elections”.

NBA