•Incorporates principle of first refusal for first term president, governors
•Governors on edge as new party limits influence on election
The mainstream of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP aligned to the Senator Ahmed Makarfi led National Caretaker Committee, NCC is set to trigger the alternative option for political survival by fusing into the Advanced Peoples Democratic Alliance, APDA.
The APDA according to news reports on Friday was one of five political associations that got the nod of the Election and Party Monitoring Department of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC to formalise its registration with the Commission.
Sunday Vanguard sources disclosed that the move to proceed with the new option follows continuing damage the lingering leadership dispute with the Senator Ali Modu Sheriff led leadership of the PDP was causing those of them attached to the Makarfi faction. Last Thursday’s decision of the Supreme Court to defer hearing on the case to May 25, Sunday Vanguard learnt may have been the final trigger to unveil the APDA as the alternative for the mainstream of the party inclined to the Makarfi group.
Sources close to those behind the move told Sunday Vanguard that all the major organs of the party are in league with the plan. To strengthen the base of the party, some smaller parties who have recently had interactions with the Prof. Jerry Gana-Strategy Review and Inter Party led committee are also to fuse into the APDA.
It was gathered that those behind it want the party to be fully involved in the forthcoming governorship election in Anambra State coming up later in the year.
The interim national chairman of the association as it is technically defined is Mallam Kabir Shittu, a member of the PDP Rescue Group and former chairman of the Inter-Party Advisory Council, IPAC. The interim national secretary is Dr. Emeka Okengwu.
APDA, Sunday Vanguard learnt, was one of three political associations promoted by some PDP chieftains who refused to align with Sheriff and it is said to have received the backing of some of the governors.
Party officials and candidates according to provisions of the constitution are to be elected at ward levels through electronic voting and results collated at the national level.
Section 126 of the Constitution as submitted to INEC regulating primary elections of the party states thus:
Conduct of Primaries for Elections for all elective positions in the Party shall be by Direct Primaries through elections where all registered members of the party who are in good financial standing with regards to the payment of their dues and levies shall be eligible to vote and may freely vote for any aspirant of their choice at the ward level using the Electronic Open Secret Balloting System.
The party is also set to introduce an innovation in the country’s political system as it would be the first to incorporate the doctrine of first refusal for a second term for an elected president or governor on the platform of the party serving in the first term. However, such a president or governor according to the provision of the constitution would, however, still be ratified by party members voting across the country at the ward levels through electronic means. Justifying the decision to break out of the PDP as led by Sheriff, the source said:
Justifying the decision to break out of the PDP as led by Sheriff, the source said:
“Sheriff’s PDP is not interested in being opposition to the APC, they have never uttered a word in opposition; that is not how to run a democracy.
“Once the idea of Option B was mooted at all levels of the organs of the Makarfi faction of the party, a few people began to run around to register parties, but the heartbeat of it is APDA,” the source said.
Sunday Vanguard gathered that some party elders including Prof. Gana were originally inclined to the PDP fusing with the PRP or the SDP, but many others thought otherwise and that APDA should be formed to become an amalgamation of many existing political parties.
The party which spells out zoning between the south and north in the production of president and national chairman also stipulates that the office of governor as produced by the party shall rotate among the three senatorial zones.
The party which has as its slogan “APDA – Stronger Together” according to the manifesto shall promote as its ideology a social democracy philosophy.
0 comments :
Post a Comment