Presidential candidate of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso has attributed the poor performance of the party in the general elections to the difficulty by its supporters to identifying the logo on the ballot paper.
Kwankwaso said the Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC) muddled up the party logo in the ballot papers making it difficult to identify.
He however said with the performance of the party in the elections where it came fourth barely one year after its existence, it was clear the the NNPP is the party for the future.
Speaking at the National Executive Committee meeting of the party, Kwankwaso said the way the way the party logo was presented on the ballot paper was enough ground to cancel.the general elections.
He warned the Commission not to repeat the same thing in the off season elections in Kogi, Bayelsa and Imo states.
He said the party was not in a hurry to go to court over such issues, adding that the NNPP would have done better than if the elections were free and fair.
He said supporters and candidates of the party found it difficult identifying the muddled up logo of the party on the party paper, thereby being unable to vote for the party.
The former Kano Governor said: “With INEC here with us, it is an opportunity to say that all our members were not happy with the way our logo was presented on the ballot papers. It was so bad that when we had the international observers, they could not tell you what was contained in the logo.
“It is so sad that we had to face those challenges at the last minute. Most people, including myself had to struggle to identify our logo.
“The party will work out how to present our logo for the next elections. One of the problems with our logo is the quality of the printing and I want to appeal to INEC that now that we are going for elections in about three states, we don’t want to be in a hurry to go to court on some of these issues.
“I believe that under normal circumstances, what INEC presented as our logo is good enough in a civilised society to cancel the national elections because we were disenfranchisement and not properly represented on the ballot and that created so much difficulty for our candidates and our party.
“What we were expecting is to see is what we presented which is a basket of fruits with colours so that people will know. Anything short of that in the coming elections will only be repeating the challenges we faced before.
“We have seen in some states how people were openly displaying money, both in local and foreign currency, buying votes. We look forward to the period when elections in this country will be the way it should be. Peaceful, without guns and other dangerous weapons as well as wilful purchase of votes.
“We are at the point of prayers because some of these things are being supported by government at all levels and the way it is going now, only God knows what will happen in some of these states. We saw what happened in Kano in 2019 and even during the last election and even in Imo.
“We pray that the judiciary should be a better place for all of us because we have number four being the Governor of a state. Maybe he will now be number five or six and still go back to the seat supported by INEC and the judiciary.
“I believe that too many things are wrong with our democracy and those who are heating so hard at the system are the same people who are the beneficiaries. I am not surprised because it is possible that they have lost contact with the people and the people don’t like them.
“In a free and fair election, NNPP would have done better than what we are seeing. I urge my friends and colleagues in politics to take it easy, try and be popular and earn the love and support of your people. What we are seeing now is stealing what belongs to the people and making them so poor.
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“We are concerned about the way things turned out in the last election and maybe more in the off season elections and nobody is saying anything. People will say announce me and let them go to court because they court is their own, they know what to do with the court.”
