Ahead of Saturday’s local government election in Ekiti State, the chairman of the State Independent Electoral Commission, Justice Jide Aladejana, has revealed that the boycott by the major opposition party, Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) will not affect the credibility of the scheduled election.
Aladejana who spoke with newsmen on Monday ahead of the December 4 poll noted that no fewer than six political parties will be participating in the poll across the 16 local government areas and the newly created 19 local council development areas.
The EKSIEC boss gave the names of the participating parties as; Action Alliance (AA), African Democratic Congress (ADC), All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), All Progressives Congress(APC), National Rescue Movement(NRM), and Young Progressives Party (YPP).
According to him, “All of us are participants in the electoral system, but the only difference is that the political parties must sponsor candidates. A delegation of PDP visited the day the collection of expression of intent forms was to close.
“They said they had just got clearance from the national body to participate in the elections and sought extension of time, which I said I couldn’t do alone.
“They left on the note that they will send somebody to get the forms that day. As we are talking now, no form was collected. In some areas where only one candidate emerged, we were empowered by laws to extend by seven days, despite, they didn’t come to collect the form.
“Notwithstanding, we are going ahead with the poll because our people are ready to elect leaders to close them in the grassroots and we have assured them that it will be credible and acceptable.”
He said the electoral body would conduct free, fair and credible polls that would meet the yearnings of all participating parties in the state.
“We are going to make these elections free, fair and credible. This is our target and nothing can stop us. We won’t allow anyone to manipulate the process. We are going to be as transparent as possible by monitoring the process and ensure that the votes of the people count,” he said.
The SIEC Chairman stated that the sensitive materials for the conduct of the elections will only be made public on the eve of the elections to avoid manipulations.
On actions taken by the commission to sensitize the voters and reduce voters apathy, Aladejana clarified that the commission did excellently well in this area through extensive consultations with political parties and voters.
“The LG elections held in 2019 had 32 per cent participation, which was above governorship and presidential elections. We did much sensitisation for our people and we hope we will have more people to participate in the December 4 election.
“We are ready for these elections. We have trained our Ad hoc staff and the Electoral officers in the 16 Local governments and 19 LCDAs. We will work with security agencies to caution those who may wish to disrupt the conduct of these elections,” he said.
The jurist averred that the commission and security agencies have perfected strategies for credible elections, saying nobody will be allowed to jeopardize the government’s efforts to install constitutionally recognised leaderships in the third tier of government.
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Ekiti LG poll: PDP’s boycott will not affect credibility of election ― SIEC boss
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