*PDP to deploy 40 Million for votes tabulation
With a plan to collate results of tomorrow’s presidential election, the
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday set the stage for a dispute –
the Federal Government has claimed.
The opposition party said it had put in place a Parallel Voting
Tabulation (PVT) system to collate results. It is deploying 40 million
of its members for the job.
But the All Progressives Congress (APC) said it was all a plot to rig the election.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is the authority
for the collation and announcement of results, but parties and election
observers are also free to collate live results. So, many are wondering
why the APC is complaining about the same thing they did in 2015.
Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed said the PDP was planning to create chaos by creating a parallel electoral umpire.
The Minister claimed that the opposition resorted to the tactic, having
realised that it could not win free, fair and peaceful elections. He
spoke in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, after an interactive session
with retirees and pensioners.
Mohammed added that the alarm “is in line with the warning we have been
issuing all along, that the PDP, jittery at the fate that is about to
befall it and desperate to grab power at all costs, will seek to scuttle
the elections, failing which it will work to discredit the results”.
“The latest manifestation of this desperation was revealed at a news
conference by the PDP on Wednesday, during which the party said it would
set up a parallel electoral body, under the tag of Parallel Voting
Tabulation (PVT) system.
“The PDP said clearly that PVT is a tool that will determine whether or
not it accepts the results of the elections. Now, this is anarchy.
“Yes, it is standard practice for political parties to have their own
monitoring systems during elections. What is not standard is to set up a
pseudo electoral commission and imbue it with the power to collate and
announce results. That’s precisely what the PDP is doing under the guise
of PVT. And this is totally unacceptable…”
The PDP’s campaign spokesman and chairman of its Strategy Committee,
Osita Chidoka, speaking at a news conference in Abuja, described PVT as a
“scientifically proven and a best-practice technique” designed to keep
umpires on their toes.
Chidoka, specifically said the PDP would be transmitting the results as
certified by the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) officers at
the polling units.
“The PDP has pivoted from recruiting first-time polling agents to
recruiting high quality, educated individuals, whose maturity and
experience will help them manage and mitigate against challenges on
election day,” Chidoka said.
