PDP on presidential primary: Ballot papers will carry photographs of aspirants

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has announced new measures it would adopt to aid transparency during its primary election.

Uche Secondus, national chairman of the party, said part of this would be a display of the presidential aspirants’ photograph on ballot papers.

This is usually not the case, as the papers only bear names of aspirants.

The main opposition party currently has at least 12 aspirants seeking its ticket in the 2019 presidential election.

Speaking when he received a team from the European Union in Abuja on Wednesday, Secondus said the counting of votes during the primary election would be done under the full view of the aspirants.

“The ballot papers we intend to use will have portraits of all the aspirants, and all the aspirants will be invited to view and calculate all the numbers and everything under the view of everyone before the election proper can start,” he said.

He added the party will soon announce the members of the committee for its national convention “so that the working committee will handover to this committee who will conduct the primary election.”

“We believe that all the presidential aspirants will have nominees into very key important committees,” he said.

“The accreditation committee where the delegates will line up and then be identified, they would have ‎‎ nominees into that committee so that they are sure that no one is going to play any game.”

Among the key aspirants in the party seeking to unseat President Muhammadu Buhari come 2019 are Senate President Bukola Saraki; former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar; former Senate President David Mark, Rabiu Kwankwaso, former governor of Kano state; and Aminu Tambuwal, governor of Sokoto.