The Social Democratic Party (SDP) has expressed worry by what it described as the unimaginable and unpatriotic resistance of the leadership of the 10th Senate to positive change in our democratic journey.
The party yesterday said this was due to its deliberate attempts and actions in the on-going reforms on the Electoral Act, to go against the popular will of Nigerians to have a definitive legislative mandate that will allow for real-time transmission of election results.
Araba Rufus Aiyenigba, National Publicity, SDP in a statement said that, “Across the country, citizens have unequivocally spoken and expressed their desires for democratic consolidation to have us move beyond the challenges of credible elections that we had in the 2023 general elections, through the extensive nationwide public hearings that the Senate itself conducted in 2025 for the Electoral Act (Repeal and Enactment) Bill 2026.
“To have critical reforms that will enhance and ensure transparency in our elections and build public trust, the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV) are fundamentally critical, particularly in having human errors reduced and to prevent manipulation of results during manual transportation by anti-democracy agents.”
According to him, it is no longer deniable that the majority of the nation’s current senators who are true patriots, Nigerian citizens and the nation’s electoral umpire itself, want us to move forward in the country’s quest for integrity of the elections, particularly going by the positive disposition of the new leadership of the INEC to incorporating integrity into our electoral processes anchored on transparency and credible elections.
The Party warned in strong terms, that the self-serving cabals within the senate leadership can no longer hold our democracy to ransom, and demands in that the new Electoral Act (Repeal and Enactment) 2026 must as a matter of true national interest, come up with an unambiguous legislative mandate and legal command on electronic transmission of results in real-time by polling unit presiding officers to avoid any possible legal manipulation of our future elections.
“The INEC has demonstrated that it has the infrastructure, technical capacity, will, and patriotic disposition to effectively transmit election results in real-time if the anti-democratic hawks would allow the Commission to do its duties without any encumbrances.
“It is mindful that eternal vigilance is the price for freedom, that the SDP calls on the citizenry, civil society groups and all democrats to step up strongly, their resistance against the few holders of our mandates, who are hell-bent on promoting and serving their interest against the true interest of Nigeria.
“The nation cannot afford to have the 2027 general elections go the way of lack of credibility as we had in 2023. All hands must, therefore, be on deck to save our democracy and Nigeria from taking retrograde steps in this new age,” Aiyenigba said,
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