2019: Why We Chose Atiku – CUPP

Dec 06, 2018 Featured, News Update Comments Off on 2019: Why We Chose Atiku – CUPP

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The Coalition of United Political Parties, on Wednesday said  it had selected  the Peoples Democratic Party’s  candidate,  Atiku Abubakar, as its candidate in the 2019  presidential election.

The CUPP which consists of over 46 parties, said the other presidential candidates of the member parties had  ceased to be the standard bearers of their parties.

Chairman of the CUPP, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, disclosed this at a press conference in Abuja  on Wednesday. According to him, the PDP presidential candidate had  met the criteria laid down by the CUPP.

Some of the criteria, he said included national acceptability of a candidate and  his party, the  strength of the structure of candidate and party in  the country and competitiveness of the candidate’s party against  the All Progressives Congress candidate, President Muhammadu Buhari.

Other criteria include  the  financial strength of candidate and party, access to financial resources, capacity and readiness for  the election in  the about 120,000 polling units in the country, the  capability and credibility of the candidate, as well as his acceptability locally and internationally.

Oyinlola said, “After a painstaking assessment of what we have in  the coalition parties and after processing the candidates’ suitability using these criteria, the steering committee hereby submits that  Alhaji Atiku Abubakar is the best and his party the most virile of all the options before us.

“We therefore chose him as the CUPP candidate for the 2019 presidential election.”

Furthermore, he noted that the APC would not have won the  Osun State governorship election in September  if the opposition parties had presented a common front.

Oyinlola said, “Indeed, opposition votes combined in the  election were about 500,000,  almost doubling those of the ruling APC,  which scored 255,505 votes.

“So, our suggestion is that whatever we are doing with the presidential ticket should be done in all states for all positions for the good of our people.

“The modalities can be worked out based on the peculiarities and political realities of each state. We must all realise the fact that it is better and wiser to win together than to lose together.

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