‘It was well-organised’ — Ayisha Osori, Samson Itodo hail PDP over presidential primary

Ayisha Osori, director at Open Society Foundations, has commended the conduct of the presidential primary election of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Osori spoke at the weekend when featured as a guest on 90MinutesAfrica, a talk show, anchored by Rudolf Okonkwo and Chido Onumah.

The opposition party, had on Saturday in Abuja, elected former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar as its presidential candidate for 2023.

Osori said the voting process was well organised making it impossible to tell how each state’s delegates voted.

“Despite what we know about how delegates were selected and what influenced delegates, I think part of what we saw at the convention was actually a bit of what democracy could look like,” Osori said.

“Instead of having ballot boxes arranged according to states, there was just one major box for the votes of all the delegates. This was a game-changer. It ensured that it was difficult to know how the delegates voted.”

Also speaking, Samson Itodo, executive director of YIAGA Africa, said the PDP should consider organising its future elections across the country in like manner.

Itodo said the PDP inclusion of persons with disability among the delegates is a “positive development”.

“It is good to see that at the national level, the PDP is getting accustomed to a well organised, well-choreographed party primary unlike what we had at the subnational levels that were very disruptive and violent,” he said.

“It looks like the party has gotten its act together with respect to organisation and logistics. Twenty-four hours to the primary, the venue was well organised with seats for delegates and the cubicles in place. In terms of organisation, I will give the party a pass mark.”

Speaking about the preparation of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Itodo said the ruling party has not shown seriousness to conduct a presidential primary election.

“Everything the party is doing is just laying the ground for a consensus. I don’t think the party wants to conduct any primary,” he said.

“They just want to adopt a sole candidate for the presidential election. But if they do so without conformity to the provisions of the law, then I suspect there might be an implosion very soon within the party.”