• Friday, March 29, 2024
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BusinessDay

Akwa Ibom to hold LG elections as scheduled

Work begins on N12 billion flood control project in Akwa Ibom

Akwa Ibom says plans have been concluded for the conduct of the local government elections holding this weekend in 31 councils across the state.

The All Progressives Congress (APC) is boycotting the polls alleging a lack of a level playing field for all the parties.

The chairman of the state electoral commission, Aniedi Ikoiwak who announced the preparedness of the body explained that accreditation and voting will be done simultaneously as elections will commence by 8am and end by 2pm respectively.

Urging voters to conduct themselves peacefully throughout the process, said the commission will witness the deployment of new gadgets for effective operations.

In an interview in Uyo, the state capital, he disclosed that the new technological devices would enable the commission’s officials to monitor the time of arrival of materials at respective polling units in the state.

He also denied disqualification of any candidate of any political party, adding however that the National Rescue Movement (NRM) attempted to field candidates without supplying adequate details as required by the provisions of the electoral law.

“The Chairman of the National Rescue Movement came to my office after the deadline for submission of forms of all candidates to tell me to input the name of candidates of Esit -Eket and Ukanafun, and I told him that such act is against the electoral law”.

“AKISIEC did not disqualify anybody. Let me also say that for you to be a candidate you must qualify to be a candidate and follow the given guidelines for the electoral process.

“The details of the running mates of the two candidates were not supplied and as such, they had failed to meet the requirements.

Similarly, the party also failed to submit the form for one of the councilorship candidates of the party in Esit Eket.

He explained that the NRM also failed to submit the form supplying details of its councilorship candidate, after the chairman of the party called to explain that he wants to substitute its original candidate in that ward.

“The chairman rather than first submitting the form before coming to seek substitution went and kept the form at home, only to bring it later as a substitution.

“In simple English what is the meaning of substitution, is it not to replace something with another. The chairman of NRM did not do so, and he was telling me to overlook the provisions of the law and just do his bidding.

“Is it because it is AKISIEC? Would he have done so with INEC? I have asked him to go to court and stop needless protests.”

Ikoiwak hinted that the election will be monitored from the situation room at the state headquarters of the electoral commission.

He said electoral staff has undergone a series of training from an American training institution, International Foundation for Electoral System, IFES, that specialises in instilling electoral best practices globally.

Reacting to claims that he is a card-carrying member of a political party, the AKISIEC boss dismissed such claim as false, maintaining he is not a member of any political party.

“I don’t know why I’m tagged a member of the PDP, for the past 10 years in INEC as Resident Electoral Commissioner, one of the criteria was that you can’t be a member of any political party.

“I was appointed Chairman of AKISIEC immediately after service so I couldn’t have joined any party.

“It is on record that I have conducted elections where different political parties won in different states, so if anyone wants to tag me a member of a political party, let me carry the tag of all political parties that won in states I had supervised.”

As measures to fight against the spread of the Corona Virus, he urged voters to go to their various voting units with facemasks as the commission will provide hand sanitizers and face masks for the officers.

He further noted that elections and declaration of winners will be done in various polling units and results will be announced at ward headquarters for councilors and local government headquarters for chairmanship candidates.