Esele, a former President of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), and one-time governorship aspirant, said like Independence Day, marked every October 1, election dates should be made permanent.

A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Edo State Mr. Peter Esele, yesterday in Benin advocated permanent, irreversible dates for elections in the nation’s calendar.

Hours after President Muhammadu Buhari signed the awaited amended Electoral Bill into law, INEC rolled out a new timetable for the 2023 general elections.

INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu, announced in the timetable that Presidential and National Assembly elections would take place on February 25, 2023, instead of February 18, earlier announced by the Commission.

Reacting to the new date, Esele declared that elections dates can’t be tampered with.

He said: “If we have fixed dates, then political parties would also follow suit concerning delegates’ conferences and primaries.

“In other parts of the world, these things are fixed. You don’t dilly-dally or tinker with such dates. Everyone works and plans with such dates.

“When you start playing with dates, you create room for distrust; you create room for lack of transparency and also manipulation of the process. INEC should move beyond dropping and changing dates.’’

Esele who commended President Muhammadu Buhari for signing the Electoral Act as amended into law, stressed that INEC should regard the new Act as an opportunity to improve on its processes.

He noted that areas of contentions had been addressed, adding “I think gradually with the Electoral Act, we are raising the bar for a fair electoral process.

“Hopefully, we will no longer have cases in court for years and courts will no longer decide our elections.”

On the amendments to the Constitution at the National Assembly, Esele opined that personal interests were involved. He decried any attempt by the National Assembly to include immunity clause for its principals in the Constitution as enjoyed by presidents, governors and their deputies.

Esele said while the Executive has fixed tenure of maximum of eight years at a stretch, lawmakers could remain in office for as long as they kept winning elections and should, therefore, not be entitled to Constitutional immunity.