APC'S PROPOSE DIRECT PRIMARY: ITS PROS AND CONS

APC'S PROPOSE DIRECT PRIMARY: ITS PROS AND CONS  
                           By:
Nurudeen Dauda
               August 29, 2018                         
nurudeendauda24@gmail.com nurudeendauda24@yahoo.com
nurudeendauda.blogspot.com

To begin with, APC by its constitution, there are three ways of determining its candidates emergence for general elections. These could either be by "consensus" or "direct" and or by "indirect" primary elections. However, the decision to decide which method to be adopted for primaries remains a collective decision of its party's stalkeholders.

However, the following are the arguments for and against direct primary elections.

ARGUMENT FOR AGAINST :

CREDIBLE MEMBERSHIP REGISTER: Credible and acceptable party's membership register is very essential to the conduct of direct primary.Those who opposed direct primary elections argued that, there is yet to be a comprehensive and acceptable party's membership register. More so, it is argued that, there is no enough time and resource to carry-out  membership registration, in view of the fact that, 7th October, 2018 is the date-line sets up by INEC to conclude all parties' primaries by all political parties.

VULNERABLE TO THUGGERY: It is argued that, direct primary elections would allow the use of political thugs in the process which might cause political violence. It is believed that desperate politicians who forsee defeat might hire thugs in order to frustrate the smooth running of the process.

COST OF ADMINISTRATION: It is argued that, the cost of running a direct primary elections considering the logistics to be required for its conduct is huge. To conduct a state or nation-wide direct primary elections with 9,572 wards in the country would be almost four times the cost of present delegate system. The APC at it were, is complained of being poorly funded at the national level.

SUSCEPTIBLE TO MANIPULATION: It is argued that, with the absence of credible membership register, it will give party executives the opportunity to manipulate the register in order to favour one candidate of their choice against another.

ARGUMENT FOR:

PREVENTION OF BRIBE: It is argued that, the more the party allows more members to participate in the process of nominating candidates, the more it will remove or reduce the issue of bribery, corruption and or monetising the processes of nominating candidates by delegates. In other words, it is less prone to corruption as it will make it very difficult to bribe all delegates due to their large numbers.

DEEPENING OF DEMOCRACY: One of the arguments for direct primary elections is that, it is meant to deepen internal democracy of a political party. It is believed that it will eliminate imposition of candidates on the party by few individuals. More participation appears to be more democratic in nature. 

CHEAPNESS TO ASPIRANTS: Direct primary elections does not require camping or lodging of delegates in a hostel room by aspirants like the delegates system.The delegates system allows the use of huge resources for inducement in order for the aspirants to have their ways.

MORE ACCEPTABLE: It is argued that, direct primary elections is more acceptable by most party members and the method will give members the sense of belonging since they would be allowed to be directly involved in choosing the most preferred candidate for the ticket.

May God bless Nigeria!

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