The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has called on the United Nations (UN) to closely monitor the 2023 general elections against any form of manipulation.
The party’s acting chairman, Umar Damagum, made the appeal while receiving a team of special representatives of the UN Secretary-General, led by the head of the UN Office in West Africa and the Sahel Region (UNOWAS), Ahmad Annadif, on Tuesday in Abuja.
Damagum, PDP’s deputy national chairman (North), urged the UN to advise the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to ensure that the conduct of 2023 polls was credible and transparent.
“We need your support to ensure that INEC is truly an election umpire. There are a lot of reforms that have taken place which will be put to test in this coming elections. We hope with the signing of the new Electoral Act, those reforms will alleviate some of our fears in the coming elections,” he said.
Stressing that the PDP will continue to play its role as the main opposition party, he told the UN representative, “You also have to continue to do your part to ensure that things are done rightly. You can do that in advisory form or any other form in which you have been doing it.”
He further stated that the country could not afford any form of electoral violence, and expressed hope that APC would imitate PDP by accepting defeat and peacefully hand over power if it did not win the 2023 general elections.
Also at the meeting, PDP deputy national chairman (South), Taofeek Arapaja, urged the UN to pay keen interest on issues of vote-buying and conduct of security agents during the polls, and to sanction individuals attempting to disrupt the 2023 elections.
“A situation where people cannot change the situation they do not like is what we do not want,” stressed Arapaga.
