BeyondPartyLine Targets Apathetic Voters Ahead of Elections, Says Convener Leye Igbabo
The Convener of political advocacy group, _BeyondPartyLine_, Hon. Leye Igbabo, has said the organization will focus on mobilizing the segment of the voting public that has hitherto shown little or no interest in the electoral process.
Igbabo disclosed this on Wednesday while addressing members of the movement in Akure, the Ondo State capital. According to him, it is dangerous for citizens to stay away from the process that determines who manages their welfare and wellbeing.
He explained that the group was formed out of concern that political parties no longer have distinct ideologies and have become “special purpose vehicles” for personal ambition rather than service delivery.
“We are at a point where you cannot in good conscience identify any political party fielding candidates purely in the overriding public interest. What we are seeing now is that candidates are hiding under party logos to fake competence, whereas they often lack the capacity to represent the people well,” Igbabo said.
The Convener said _BeyondPartyLine_ will not field candidates but will instead subject all candidates presented by political parties to a public assessment of their background, antecedents, and track record of service under a program tagged *Who-Are-You Assessment*.
“We want to pluck party candidates from behind the party logos and assess them individually. If they have served before, what is their scorecard? If they are new, what have they done in their communities before nursing this ambition? We will not be swayed by emergency palliatives rolled out because someone is nursing an ambition. That would be fallacious and hypocritical,” he said.
Igbabo added that the goal is to identify representatives who are genuinely prepared for public service delivery, and not those treating politics as a business investment.
He further disclosed that after the assessment, the group will mobilize voters in favor of candidates it deems most credible. To achieve this, he said, the group is deliberately targeting voters who have remained indifferent to elections.
“We are already mobilizing, sensitizing and enlightening the very segment of the voting public who have always been lukewarm to the electoral process. We are avoiding die-hard party members and focusing on the not-so-interested voters who are at the receiving end of misrepresentation. We are confident that this idea will yield the desired results and that the people will ultimately benefit from the democratic dividends that have eluded them,” Igbabo concluded.
_BeyondPartyLine_ says it will release its assessed list of candidates ahead of the next round of elections.
