Parties withdraw from today’s polls in Ekiti

Critical stakeholders in today’s election have unanimously rejected plans by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct elections in two of the six federal constituencies in Ekiti State.

The stakeholders, comprising the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Labour Party (LP), All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), Alliance for Democracy (AD), All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), African Democratic Congress (ADC), National Conscience Party (NCP), National Republican Party (NRP) were among the 13 political parties that participated in the meeting with 10 of them signing for the postponement of the polls to April 26.

The meeting, held at the headquarters of the state police command with the new Commissioner of Police in the state, Alhaji Sabo Ringim, presiding, also had various security agencies in attendance as well as the Resident Electoral Commission (REC) in the state, Alhaji Hussaini Halilu Pai.

The political parties agreed at the meeting that since there would not be a gubernatorial election in the state, it would be better if INEC shelved the proposed conduct of today’s elections and focus on conducting them on Tuesday, April 26.

A source who was present at the meeting said, “all the political parties represented at the meeting said that they will not participate in the elections billed to hold in two federal constituencies in the South Senatorial district of the state, namely Ekiti South Federal Constituency 1 and Ekiti South Federal constituency II.”

The REC, Alhaji Pai, was said to have posited that “nothing is wrong with this request, but I have to get the document and send it to the chairman for ratification. The response of the INEC in Abuja would determine whether the election will hold or not.”

-Tribune

Short URL: http://newnigerianpolitics.com/?p=6307

Posted by admin on Apr 9 2011. Filed under Ekiti, Elections 2011, NNP Elections 2011 Updates, State News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry