16 Political Parties Endorse Shift In Election Date

Threaten to boycott polls

Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja

Sixteen out of the twenty six registered political parties on Tuesday endorsed calls for the postponement of the general election slated for the February 14 and 28.

Also five out of  the 14 presidential candidates on Tuesday signed a statement urging the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)  to postpone the elections to a more appropriate date.

The parties are United Democratic Party (UDP), Citizen Peoples Party (CPP), Peoples Party of Nigeria (PPN), Action Alliance (AA), Peoples Democratic Congress (PDC) (ACPN), Labour Party (LP), (MPPP), United Party of Nigeria (UPN), Alliance for Democracy (AD), (ADC), (ACD) Democratic Peoples Party (DPP), New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP) Peoples Party of Nigeria (PPN) and Independent Democrat (ID).

The five presidential candidates who endorsed the postponement were Godson Okoye (UDP), Chief Sam Okoye (CPP), Prince C.O Allagoe (PPN), Tunde Anifowose (AA) and Ganiu Galadima (ACPN).

The 16 political parties in a resolution calling for the postponement, said, "Fellow Nigerians, we the concerned leaders of political parties, run up to the 2015 February General Elections, have observed some dangerous trends, which if not checked may negatively and adversely affect our democracy".

The parties hinged their argument for the postponement on security, distribution of Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) and people deserting their residence for their villages.

They  also threatened to boycott the elections if the opinions were not respected.

The leaders of the 16 parties  called on Federal government to take necessary steps to provide adequate security for Nigerians to go out and collect their PVCs in order to be able to exercise their civic and constitutional duty.

http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/16-political-parties-endorse-shift-in-election-date/200883/