Governor of Ondo State, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, has expressed dismay over the low turnout of voters at the ongoing House of Assembly poll in the State.
The governor who alongside his wife, Betty arrived his polling unit, Ijebu Owo ward in Owo Local Government Area of the State at 10:08am maintained that the turnout was critically low compared to what was witnessed during the Presidential and National Assembly elections held two weeks ago.
Akeredolu who attributed the low turnout to power supply of the BEDC which he said made the electorate stay back at home as they watched television, stated that the situation would improve if electricity is temporarily ceased for the purpose of the election.
His words, “The turnout in my unit here does not look impressive and I’m using this opportunity to appeal to our people to come out.
“I’ve been called from various quarters to instruct that the electricity should be put off for the while, in order for people to leave their television set and come out and vote, but I’m not going to do that.
“All I’m just going to do is to appeal for them to come out and vote massively.
The governor who also expressed dissatisfaction as regards the number of political parties listed on the ballot paper, emphasized that it could be confusing to electorate.
He called on the National Assembly to find ways of looking into the situation by streamlining the political parties to limited numbers of parties for a healthy electoral process.
“The ballot paper looks so much unwieldy and the National Assembly must do something about it,” the governor said.
Also at Ipele, which was also monitored by our correspondent, low turnout of voters was also witnessed, as most of the polling units visited were scanty as against what was witnessed two weeks ago.
According toHon. Tunji Dairo of the PDP in the state, the low turnout could be attributed to non adequate sensitization by both the political parties and INEC.
