Atiku Offers Proposals to Improve the Electoral Process in the Country

The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar has offered several proposed to improve the electoral process in the country.

One of the proposals is the mandatory use of electronic voting and collection of results in future polls.

He also suggested that litigations from disputed polls, should end before the inauguration of the winner of the polls declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

He also called for a six year single term tenure for an elected president.

Atiku, made the call while addressing a news conference in Abuja on Monday over the last week’s Supreme Court’s ruling on his appeal against the election of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu as the winner of the 2023 presidential poll.

He also wants the amendment of the constitution to prevent courts from using technicalities in electoral cases to undermine the will of the electorate.

Atiku also advocates that future president must score above 50 per cent of votes cast in the presidential poll, to be declared the winner of the poll.

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“INEC should be mandated to verify the credentials submitted to it by candidates and their parties and where it is unable to do so – perhaps because the institutions involved did not respond in time – it must publicly state so and have it on record.

“A situation where a candidate submits contradictory credentials to INEC in different election cycles and the electoral umpire accepts them without question points to gross negligence, at best, or collusion to break the law by the leadership of the INEC, at worst.

The submission of contradictory qualifying documents by a candidate as well as those found to be forged or falsified should disqualify a candidate even if the falsification or forgery is discovered after the person had been sworn into office.

“The burden of proving that a document submitted to INEC is forged should not be on the opposing candidates in the election. It is never the responsibility of an applicant for a job to prove that the person who eventually got the job did so with forged documents.

“In addition to these proposed constitutional amendments, the Electoral Act should be amended to provide that, except where they explicitly violate the Constitution and other laws, the rules and procedures laid down by the electoral umpire and made public for the benefit of the contestants and the voters will be treated as sacrosanct by the courts in deciding on election disputes.