3. Nomination
The Nomination Phase
The electorate needs choice, and to know that the people they most trust to run the country are being put forward as candidates. People will be disinclined to support this system if they have no emotional connection with the nominees.
All parties have the right to be included in the system and to be confident that they will be treated as equally in opposition as they will when in power.
Finally, parties themselves must follow a democratic process of their own when selecting candidates – this must be the person chosen by following the right process, not favoritism or personal agenda driven.
“The most notorious example of this travesty was the case of a man who won the election in one of the Owo constituencies, his NNDP opponent was declared the victor. He thereupon announced that he had (upon deep reflection) (my own words) decided to join the NNDP. A few days after this announcement, the electoral commissioner declared him the successful candidate and quietly dropped his opponent.”
“Despite an all-party consensus to ensure a free and fair election at a meeting called by the then Prime Minister, all agreements reached were widely breached. The UPGA in sworn affidavits submitted to the President of the Republic showed how the agreements to lift bans on public meetings were breached, how permits for rallies in the North were denied and mass arrests of their candidates and polling agents in the North. Besides, the UPGA showed that the NPC/NNA, had perfected a strategy of getting its candidates returned unopposed by arresting UPGA and other opposition candidates to prevent them from filing their nomination papers within the prescribed time.”