Notwithstanding the overwhelming lead by the candidate of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA), Charles Soludo in the Anambra gubernatorial election, the battleground has shifted to Ihiala local government (LGA) to decide the winner of the gubernatorial election.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had shifted the election to November 9, due to the non-arrival of election materials and irregularities. Election in the LGA had earlier been extended to last Sunday but was postponed by the commission to the new date.
Also, Anambra State commissioner for information and public enlightenment, Don Adinuba, in an interview with journalists had alleged that a politician in the area and his group had tried to rig the election. He noted that some of the hoodlums have been arrested by security agents in the area.
Results from 20 out of the 21 local government areas of the state, showed that Soludo polled a total of 103,946 votes, more than twice that of his closest opponent, PDP’s Valentine Ozigbo who got 51,322 votes.
APC’s Andy Uba secured the third-highest votes- 42,942, while YPP’s Ifeanyi Ubah got 20,917.
Across the state, tensions are high among the chieftains and politicians within the three major political parties ahead of the election in Ihiala LGA.
In view of the precarious security situation in the state, there are fears that the rescheduled election in the council might be a theatre of war. Observers have called for caution from politicians, urging security agencies to be on alert.
Stakeholders say that political parties must also collaborate with the electoral body to ensure the rerun goes on well without glitches.
They say that the Anambra governorship election was perhaps a litmus test to how electronic transmission of results could weed out electoral manipulations. Even so, it could not completely address the inherent challenges facing the electoral process.
“The rerun election scheduled for Tuesday may not necessarily have an impact in determining who wins because the leading candidate, Charles Soludo of APGA had already won 18 out of the 20 local governments released so far.
“Having a rerun in Ihiala local government is to ensure that the provisions of the Electoral Act and the 1999 Nigeria Constitution are met accordingly and ensure that the people of the local government are not disenfranchised,” political analyst Kunle Okunade said.
Read also: Anambra poll: APC insist on irregularities
Ihiala LGA has registered voters of 148,407 registered voters on INEC’s record; however, with the results announced so far, there is joy in the camp of APGA, they say that it is rather a herculean task for either Ozigbo or Uba to overtake Soludo.
This comes amid an allegation by the state chairman of the APC, Basil Ejidike that the election was marred by irregularities.
But speaking in an interview with BusinessDay on the rescheduled election in Ihiala, Chekwa Okorie, a leading politician in the South-East, said the pattern of voting in Ihiala cannot be different from other LGAs in the state, urging INEC to continue to uphold its integrity by conducting a free and fair election in the council.
According to him, “INEC has done well within the constraints they encounter in the state, and the people of Anambra State have surpassed expectations. For the situation now in Ihiala, I would give that credit to INEC; because they did not do what they often did in the past where they announced results and said go to court.
“But here, INEC said no election and because there is only one local government, they should be on top of the situation and conduct a good election.
“Let there be a free and fair poll, whatever would be the outcome would be accepted. People are just speculating, you can see there was no problem.
“It is not a war situation, but INEC should respect the wishes of the people, the pattern in other LGAs is clear and it cannot be different”.
Meanwhile, the candidate of the PDP, Ozigbo said he is still optimistic about winning the gubernatorial, adding that Ihiala was not the only place where elections failed to hold.
The PDP candidate stated this in an interview with journalists in Awka, Monday, stressing that with over 248,000 votes at stake in Ihiala and other places where election did not take place, the party still has hope of producing the next governor.
He appealed to the people of Ihiala and other areas to come out en masse to vote for PDP as a better alternative in the state governance, regretting the impact of vote-buying which he described as a major issue in the nation’s political development.
“We have the statistics, and know the areas where INEC could not conduct election on Saturday, and we call on them to ensure they do so.
“After Ihiala, other places where elections did not take place will follow, and the Independent National Electoral Commission must obey the electoral law and conduct elections where it did not hold. The party has all areas where the election did not hold and will be happy if an election is held there.” Ozigbo said.
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