Ahead of next year’s general election, the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Dr Iyorchia Ayu has charged the United Nations (UN) with technical support to facilitate the electronic transmission of results.
He described the UN support as critical to the survival of Nigeria’s democracy.
The former Senate President stated this Thursday when he received a delegation of the UN Needs Assessment Mission at PDP national headquarters in Abuja.
“We are very happy to see that your support is critical for the survival of democracy in Nigeria and other parts of Africa and the world,” he said.
Iyorchia Ayu, who described the PDP as the only organic political party in Nigeria, said since 1998 when the party was created, it has remained a strong united force.
He continued “we haven’t gone into alliances with anybody instead people keep moving into our party because it is the biggest party in this country and we are happy to say that in the first 16 years of its existence, that is between 1999 to 2015 the party control political power at various local levels and was in local governments and states and the national level.”
PDP National Chairman also noted that the party has done very well in terms of putting this country in very good shape, saying “we are proud to say we did very well in terms of running this country and growing it to be the biggest economy on the African continent.”
Ayu hinted that since they lost power in 2015, they have been busy rebuilding the party as an opposition party.
He continued,”So observer teams like yours should not just assess but encourage the democratic process. We think your support is important. We are happy to hear that you are interested in various forms of support not just to the country but also to civil society organizations in such a way that they will be strengthened.
“We think this will go along with some of the technical support particularly that will facilitate electronic transmission of results and other areas that we have to check election malpractices are very important to us.
“As a political party, we’re very confident that if we have a free and fair election, the PDP will sweep all as we have demonstrated that in recent times”.
He expressed hope that in a free and fair election, PDP will return to winning ways and will be able to win several states and the 2023 elections.
Earlier in his remarks, the leader of the UN delegation, Mr Serge Gakwandi Kubwimana, said the UN electoral needs assessment mission was in Nigeria in response to a request for electoral support.
He stated, “So we are here to assess the needs of the country but also of the key stakeholders that play a role in elections, but also to assess the overall context, possible challenges that may affect the electoral process and how best the UN could assist the Government and the various stakeholders in the lead up to those elections.
“We were involved in previous electoral cycles going back to 1999 not mistaken. So that’s sort of a continuum of that role. The mission has been dispatched by the leadership of the UN in New York”.
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