Nigerians Should Not Be Forced To Vote On Saturdays – Association of Sabbatarian Youths of Nigeria

The Association of Sabbatarian Youths of Nigeria (ASYN) has blasted the use of their day of worship –Saturdays for elections by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

According to reports, the group revealed this in a petition they handed over to President Buhari.

The ASYN also said that over 43 million of its members across the country will be deprived of their right to vote if elections are fixed on Saturdays.

The statement reads: “It was only in Nigeria that most of the national activities/elections were being conducted on Saturdays, thereby depriving Saturday worshipers their rights to vote and be voted for and to participate in other national activities as eligible citizens of Nigeria.

“It is worthy of note that the considerable number of Sabbatarian Youths electors are more than eight million people and more than thirty-five million non-youth members of Sabbath eligible to vote. These people are being deprived of their franchise due to the conduct of elections on Saturdays, which is their holy day of worship.

“Records show that the number of previous recorded votes were far below the number, who had their Permanent Voter Card, PVC. This is one of the contributing factors.

“We want to refer to the constitutional provisions according every citizen of this country, the right and freedom of worship/religion. It is simple to conduct national elections any other day apart from the three internationally recognized days of worship.

“Laws and International Conventions have determined that every citizen of a country, who is eligible to vote, shall be allowed to exercise his/her franchise and any election conducted, which excludes some eligible citizens from voting, amounts to disenfranchisement.

“Despite the status given to the right to vote on the international scene, and notwithstanding the fact that Nigeria has ratified these international instruments, it is disconcerting to discover that we have not been accorded the voting rights.

“It is our strong view that we should be allowed to exercise this right. Therefore, we see no reason why we should be imposed with laws, which have to be obeyed by every citizen without giving an opportunity to partake in electing those who will govern us and make those laws which we obey.