Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
Ahead of the February 16 presidential election, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has put in place a Parallel Voting Tabulation (PVT); to enable it collate the results of presidential and National Assembly polls independently.
Spokesman of the PDP Presidential Campaign Organisation, Osita Chidoka, who announced this at a press briefing, in Abuja, yesterday, said the PVT will provide the opposition party the “statistical certainty to accept or challenge” the results declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC).
Chidoka explained that the PVT is part of measures put in place by the PDP to ensure that the results of the presidential poll are not manipulated.
“The PVT is a scientifically proven, best practice technique, to hold election authorities accountable, particularly where there is a lack of trust, and the results are highly contested.
“The PVT is a tool that will assure that PDP partisans accept the results of the election, and that the country remains peaceful and respectful of its differences.
“We are aware that other PVTs would be conducted by civil society. PDP has established a reporting system for the PVT through the wards, to the district headquarters, to the states, to the national tally centre…the scope of the effort is historic for Nigeria, and, it will provide us with statistical certainty to accept or challenge the declared results.”
Also speaking at the briefing, PDP National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, assured of the party preparedness for Saturday’s election as it has mobilised its 40 million members, nationwide, for the exercise.
Ologbondiyan charged PDP members to arrive their polling centres early, ready to vote and “to use every legitimate means to protect themselves from any aggression, resist all rigging plans, all through the way, to the very end.”