The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP) have described the adoption of direct primaries as retrogressive.

The PDP, in a statement by Kola Ologbondiyan, claimed that direct primaries would  erode all the gains made in the electoral process since 1999.

Therefore, the opposition party urged the Senate to immediately reverse itself, noting that the adoption of direct primaries for nomination of candidates does not reflect the wishes of Nigerians.

“The decision by the APC-controlled Senate is a humongous blow to the development of democratic norms and a plot to introduce anarchy during internal party elections as currently obtainable in the APC.

“The PDP holds that the provision is aimed at increasing the costs of nomination procedures thereby surrendering the processes to money bags against the wishes and aspiration of Nigerians.

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“Our party makes bold to state that with the exception of the APC, which intends to deploy looted funds in future election, hardly will there be any political party that will be able to raise the cost of conducting internal elections under a direct primary process,” the opposition party stated.

Reacting, CUPP’s National Secretary, Chief Peter Ameh, argued that decision on the mode of primaries should be left for political parties to decide.

“They can’t dictate for political parties their means of party nomination. Do they give political parties grant? No! So they should allow political parties to look for most cost effective ways to manage internal issues as it relate to the conduct of party primaries.

“Let them approve Option A4 as the means of voting in an election if truly they want things to work in Nigeria,” it said.

On the approval of the electronic transmission of election results, he said: “We should not applaud the Senate for doing the right thing after so much public outcry, this is why I have insisted that only mass action from citizens can give our democratic process needed growth.