Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has outlined nine conditions he said must be met by President Bola Tinubu’s administration to restore electoral integrity and strengthen Nigeria’s democracy.
In a statement posted on X on Thursday, Atiku commended Nigerians for their enthusiasm in the ongoing Permanent Voter Card (PVC) registration but stressed that credible elections require far-reaching electoral and judicial reforms.
He noted that voter turnout in the 2023 general elections was the lowest since 1999, with only 24.9 million of 93.47 million registered voters participating, representing 26.72 per cent.
Atiku warned that unless reforms are implemented, public confidence in the democratic process will continue to erode.
He cited concerns raised by Prof. Chidi Odinkalu in his book The Selectorate, where he argued that judges are increasingly determining election outcomes instead of voters.
The former vice president listed the conditions to include mandatory use of BVAS for voter accreditation and upload of election results at all polling and collation centres, mandatory electronic transmission of election results to the iREV portal, with no discretion for manual transmission, and Ward-level collation of results strictly based on electronically transmitted figures.
Other conditions according to him are: Local Government collation strictly based on electronically transmitted ward results; State-level collation strictly based on electronically transmitted local government results; National collation strictly based on electronically transmitted state results; ban on manual accreditation, transmission, and collation of results at all levels.
In addition to those conditions, Atiku demanded subjecting of the appointment of the INEC Chairman, Resident Electoral Commissioners, and National Commissioners to democratic voting by the people, and shifting the burden of proof in election petitions to INEC to demonstrate substantial compliance with the Electoral Act and Constitution.
Atiku maintained that implementing these reforms would return power to the people and reduce the influence of vested interests in determining electoral outcomes.
