January is too soon...
Stakeholder Democracy Network in its monthly news brief has called on President Johnathan and the National Assembly to immediately support calls for elections to be restored to their original date of April.
"The moves to push elections forward to January through the new electoral laws needlessly imperil the prospect of having free and fair election. This issue requires a decisive and immediate response from our national leadership "said SDN Nigeria director, Inemo Samiama
"The early election dates will have no effect on their claimed goal of ending election disputes before new administrations take office but they will make it extraordinarily difficult for INEC to complete preparations.”
“Unless the Presidency and National Assembly take immediate steps to correct the mistake of scheduling elections for January then they will be guilty of leading Nigeria into another electoral minefield, that could easily result in failed elections”
“The NBA and virtually every civil society organization associated with elections called for them to be restored to their April date several weeks ago yet no action has been taken. Just yesterday the INEC Chairman, who is constrained to implement the law before him, again raised concerns over the lack of time to prepare elections. This is not an issue that can be further ignored.”
Today we are calling on local organizations, the public and the diaspora to make their voice heard on this issue. We also call on the international community to end its silence on this issue.”
“They know well that there is nowhere in the world that a country of our size has been given the task of registering voters and fully preparing elections in just over three months. Failure to act now will needlessly risk another failed election and a further four years of instability in the Niger Delta.”
Signed
Inemo Samiama September 7th 2010
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