The Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party e-Membership Registration Committee, Chief Raymond Dokpesi, has said the party is undergoing an all inclusive process of rebranding itself in order to conform with global best practice of political participation.
The chairman spoke during the official inauguration of the party’s electronic registration in Etsako East Local Government Area of Edo State on Friday.
At Ward 1, in Agenebode, about 350 existing and prospective members of the party party, who had reportedly turned out as early as 8am for the exercise, were seen filling forms and waiting to be registered.
One of them, Mrs. Imhokha Janet, described the exercise as a welcome development.
“I am happy with the registration. I paid N1,000 at Skye Bank and I have filled my form already, waiting to be registered,” she said.
The firm handling the project, E-connect Technologies Limited, explained that each registration would take five minutes, while the exercise would last for three days in each of the 18 local government areas of the state.
It also said the exercise would run continuously in all the party’s secretariats across the state.
But the Director of Operations of the firm, Mr. Emmanuel Ndubuisi, noted that although the project was designed to do instant issuance of identity cards, the relevant materials would be available on Monday.
However, Dokpesi, while speaking on the essence of the exercise, explained that, while not drifting from the ideals of the founding fathers, part of the objectives of the project was to return the party to its members, many of whom belonged to the younger generation and were atune with modern ways of doing things.
He said, “This is the age of the social media, not even the traditional media. The people that are going to be voters, they don’t go and watch television; they don’t listen to the radio. They are just busy on their social media and it is what somebody posts, true or false, that is what he knows.
“So, you can say on your TV 1,000 and one things; the younger ones don’t have access to it. And if you say you must return the party to these younger ones, you must be in the position to lead them. And the surest way you can lead them is through the biometric registration, to be able to have their contacts and be able to interact with them.”
Dokpesi also noted that a critical part of the biometric registration, which was being managed by an IT firm, E-connect Technologies Limited, was to eliminate the challenge of godfatherism or sponsorship of the party by a few during electioneering campaigns, as each member can contribute funds to the party by virtue of his or her membership
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