‘We didn’t inflate votes in S’South, S’East’

Posted by admin Elections 2011, South-East, South-South Thursday, April 21st, 2011

Abia State Governor, Chief Theodore Orji, has debunked the claim by the Congress for Progressive Change that votes from the South-South and the South-East were inflated in favour of President Goodluck Jonathan during the presidential election.

He said the high votes recorded from the two zones were as a result of the popularity of the President and his political party, the Peoples Democratic Party, in the two zones.

Orji, who spoke in a telephone interview with our correspondent on Wednesday, urged the CPC to look for another excuse following its dismal performance during the presidential election in the zone.

The CPC, in a petition to the Independent National Electoral Commission, had demanded the cancellation of the presidential election results from the two zones.

The party’s petition, which was addressed to the commission’s chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, and dated April 18, 2011, was signed by the party’s National Secretary, Mr. Buba Galadima.

In the petition, the CPC claimed that elections in these two zones were not done in substantial compliance with the principles of the Electoral Act.

It added that the results from the zones were “substantially affected by massive irregularities.”

The petition also stated, “The ballot boxes were, on account of the above, thumb-printed with multiple votes in favour of the Peoples Democratic Party at the election with one compromised voter thumb printing multiply for the presidential candidate of the PDP at the expense of other candidates of the opposition parties.

“Votes were recorded for the voters that were not personally in attendance at the polling unit.”

Orji, while debunking the claim, said that he was sure that the PDP was the dominant party in the two zones and therefore there was no basis to inflate any votes from here or South-South.

“Also, don’t forget that the All Progressive Grand Alliance, which is the ruling party in Anambra State, also adopted the President as its presidential candidate.

“Now, with the four governors produced by the PDP and the remaining one from APGA from the South-East and all the six states in the South-South are being governed by the PDP.

“It is logical, if you also look at the popularity of the governors, that the voters from these zones would queue behind their governors in choosing their president.

“Also, you must take into cognisance that both the Mr. President and his wife are from this part of the country,” he said.

Orji also said that among all the presidential candidates, it was only Jonathan that visited all the states from the two zones to campaign and sell himself to the electorate.

He was particularly piqued with the allegation that the two zones inflated votes, which he said meant that people from the two regions were involved in electoral malpractice.

He said it would be better if politicians could cultivate the habit of accepting electoral defeat in order for the country to move forward democratically.

-Punchwp_posts