Electoral Hub outlines political parties role in credible, quality elections

A think tank group, The Electoral Hub, has identified the tole of political parties in the quality of elections in Nigeria.

The group in a statement on Thursday, said this was part of the forum’s discussion during its recently held 11th technical session.

The chair of Electoral Hub, Professor Adebayo Olukoshi noted that the role of political parties in the democratic process, and the credibility of elections has been a recurrent issue of concern for The Forum.

He said, “The meeting was convened to focus the minds of the members of the Forum on the role and place of political parties in the quest for strengthening democratic governance in Nigeria, and the securing and deepening of electoral integrity in the country. As a concrete point of entry, it was decided to examine the ways in which, over time, political parties have impacted the quality Nigerian elections.

“During the technical session, Forum members explored theoretical, historical and practical issues arising relating to and arising from the functionality of political parties in Nigeria and their effectiveness in shaping election outcomes. The first presentation was by Professor Adele Jinadu on the topic, “Political Parties as Institution of Democracy: Theory and Ideals.”

“Following extensive deliberations and inputs by Forum members on the issues raised, the Forum proposed far-reaching recommendations for improving political parties and ensuring that they contribute to credible elections. These recommendations include: that parties should be strengthened to ensure their survival after elections; the INEC department on Election and Party Monitoring should be reorganise and reinforced to focus strictly on political parties’matters – registration, regulations, monitoring etc. also, campaign finance monitoring should be given more visibility; the INEC political party deparment should be strengthened including professional training for staff; there should be much greater attention to ways of growing party membership, programme vision, and internal party democracy in Nigeria; INEC should collaborate with CSO, and former INEC non-partisan staff in monitoring political party elections, congresses and conventions, particularly, their primaries; capacity building programmes should be organized for political parties, including the full time staff who run the day to day operations of the parties. Also, elected officials of political parties should undertake induction sessions organised by them as well as by INEC. ”