ABUJA – The Ambassador of the Democratic Republic of Congo to Nigeria, Marie-Louise Kombe, has urged African countries to emulate Nigeria’s electoral process to ensure free and fair election in their countries.
Kombe spoke on Thursday in Abuja at the “3 Lecture Towards 2015 Elections’’ organised by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for stakeholders.
The ambassador also commended the country’s electoral process, adding that Nigeria is the only African country where the ruling party had contested elections in some states of the federation and lost.
She noted that the major problem her country had was political conflict, which arose from the conduct of elections.
Kombe said the political conflicts were mostly caused by western interference who sponsored candidates of their choice to become presidents. [eap_ad_1] She said such candidates when they took over leadership, became puppets in the hands of the western world by serving their interests instead of developing the DRC.
According to her, the opposition in the DRC is another major problem facing the country.
The ambassador stated that the opposition parties opposed anything the ruling party does, adding that this does not augur well for the country’s electoral system.
“In the 2011 election in DRC, the opposition didn’t want the election to hold, they were not prepared for the election. They really need to be educated.
“The opposition should learn from Nigeria. We should emulate Nigeria’s electoral process. We Africans should be patriotic,’’ Kombe said.
Earlier, Prof. Attahiru Jega, the Chairman of INEC, said that the lecture was part of efforts by the commission to create awareness on the 2015 elections.
Jega was represented at the occasion by Prof. Lai Olurode, the Chairman Board of the Electoral Institute and a National Commissioner of INEC. (NAN)
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