INEC official displays an empty ballot box
By Charles Kumolu & Providence Obuh
LAGOS—The All Progressives Congress, APC, has slammed Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, over its 22-hour, no-movement order in Anambra State.
INEC placed the ‘’no movement’’ from 12 midnight tomorrow to 10 pm on Saturday to ensure free and fair governorship election in the state on Saturday.
However, in a statement signed by the Interim National Publicity Secretary of APC, Alhaji Lai Mohammed in Lagos yesterday, the party wondered why such an extended curfew should be imposed because of an isolated election.
Mohammed said: ‘’Even during general elections, people are allowed to move around freely from 4 pm on election day. Election is not war, but a celebration of democracy. Declaring a 22-hour curfew for an election in only one state raises serious questions: What is INEC hiding? Is the curfew meant to give riggers enough time to write and collate their cooked-up results?
‘’Are elections and free movement of people incompatible? Why does INEC need a 22-hour curfew to conduct a ‘peaceful and successful’ election in one state? Where in the world is a 22-hour curfew imposed during an election?
‘’In any case, Anambra does not have the kind of terrain or riverine communities that will justify waiting for hours for election results to be taken from polling units to the collation centre, hence there is no reason to turn Anambra into a ghost state just to hold a governorship election.
‘’We therefore call on INEC to reconsider this overstretched curfew if it has no underlying motive for declaring it in the first instance. After all, information at our disposal has it that some decent INEC officials have rejected being part of the Anambra election because they do not want to be tainted by the shenanigans of some of their unscrupulous colleagues who are colluding with do-or-die politicians for ‘thirty pieces of silver’.’’
APC further said that ‘’the creation of 1,973 extra polling units by INEC, apart from the original 4,608 units, the election should even be faster as it will take voters less time to complete the accreditation and voting process.
Meanwhile, the party has warned security agents against harassing and intimidating voters on Saturday, as they did during the infamous Delta Central Senatorial District bye-election last month.
Meantime, sensitive and non sensitive materials needed for the Anambra State gubernatorial elections, have arrived the state capital, Awka.
As at the time of filing this report, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC was taking delivery of the materials at the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Awka.
Efforts to speak to the INEC officials proved abortive.
No comments:
Post a Comment