BOTH knocks and praises have trailed the Anambra State Independent Electoral Commission’s (ANSIEC) postponement of council polls, initially slated for October 5, to December 14, 2013, as party leaders and candidates have expressed mixed feelings.
The Commissioner for Information, Culture and Tourism, Mr. Joemartins Uzodike, said the postponement vindicated the position of Governor Peter Obi and the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) that the state was not ready for the polls.
Uzodike, who spoke in Awka Wednesday, commended ANSIEC for the postponement, though he blamed the commission for not informing the government of its problems before making the pronouncement.
He wondered how the election could be conducted without a list of contestants since, according to the commission, no political party, except APGA, had submitted the list of candidates. He maintained that the state government empowered the commission with adequate funds.
Contrarily, state Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDM), Prince Chuba Ikeagwu, while speaking with The Guardian on phone yesterday, said it was their usual attitude to council elections. He said: “We doubt the possibility of holding the election in December as they said.
“We gave ANSIEC every support, and we did our primaries. This is an internal problem of the commission, not pressure from the political parties. They have logistics problem.”
Though he lamented that the development would adversely affect candidates, he noted, however, that it would give parties opportunity to do their homework well. All the same, Ikeagwu urged the commission to put its house in order and keep to the rescheduled date.
A councillorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from Onitsha North local council said they were not happy with the postponement, lamenting that people have been investing in this election since the past 10 years.
Another candidate, who would rather not be named, said she has spent no less than N1.5 million on this exercise, adding that the least people paid for tax clearance was N150,000, while she paid N250,000 to obtain hers. Noting that it was the first time scheduled council elections had been shifted, she said such development could discourage people.
However, the PDP Chairman, Awka South council, Mr. Sylvester Molokwu, said it was a welcome development since it will give the party more time to strategise, noting that the time frame initially was too short.
Similarly, state Secretary of the Labour Party (LP), Mr. Anthony Orekyeh, argued that since ANSIEC said it would not want to conduct an election that could create problems in the state, parties should wait till the appropriate time, adding that it was a welcome development.
The Acting Chairman of the commission, Mr. Sylvester Okonkwo, had announced the new date at a meeting with stakeholders and representatives of political parties in Awka on Tuesday, stating that 24 days to the elections, political parties were yet to submit the list of candidates and forms to the commission.
He doubted the possibility of holding the election without the parties’ names on the ballot paper, just as he wandered how many ballot boxes the commission should customise.
He further linked the postponement to pressure from stakeholders and political parties, who argued that the election was close to the governorship poll slated for November 16, while some alleged that the conduct of the council elections was meant to favour a particular party.
Post a Comment