Joseph Bakare
Sixty eight registered political parties would today sign a new code of conduct for political parties to guide their conduct before, during and after the 2019 elections.
Speaking at a validation workshop, where the code was adopted yesterday, the Chief Operating Officer of the Political Parties Leadership and Policy Development Centre of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Prof. Habu Galadima, said the code was subjected to rigorous expert review before being presented to the parties to deliberate on and agree upon.
Galadima said the code is a voluntary Code of Conduct that provides a set of rules of behaviour for political parties and their supporters relating to their participation in the election process.
He said that centre is a beneficiary of a grant of 2.7 million Euros, under the European Union Support for Democratic Governance in Nigeria (EUSDGN) to implement component three of the project aimed to enhance pluralism, tolerance, internal democracy and equality of opportunity of political parties.
Project Director of the European Centre for Electoral Support, Davis Le Norte, described political parties as the primary stakeholders in the political system.
He noted that their conduct impact considerably on the electoral process and outcomes and by extension, the stability of the democratic system.
“Building a virile political party system in which actors will play politics according to the rule and regulation, and subscribe to minimal ethical standard and code of conduct is therefore a basic condition for consolidation of democracy,” he said.