Leading political parties in Edo State have called for a free, transparent and credible election as voters go to the polls today (Saturday) to elect chairmen and councillors in the 18 local government in the state, the first in seven years.
The chairman of Edo State Independent Electoral Commission, Justice James Oyomire (retd.), said that 18 chairmen and 192 councillorship seats will be contested for, while voting will take place in 4,519 polling units across the state.
He stated that there were 18 registered parties in the country but only 11 invited EDSIEC to capture their primaries while seven parties out of the 11 submitted forms for their candidates before deadline.
Parties that will participate in the election, according to the chairman, are the Accord Party, African Action Congress, Africa Democratic Congress, Allied Peoples Movement, All Progressives Congress, Labour Party and the Peoples Democratic Party.
He added, “In order to ensure adequate security, before, during and after the election, the commission engaged relevant security agencies in the state, while we interacted with the electorate and other stakeholders to ensure the success of the exercise,” he added.
On the accreditation process, the chairman said it would be manual because the law that set up the commission only recognised manual accreditation, adding “We can’t use BVAS because first, we do not have it and second, the law that establishes the commission only recognises manual accreditation.
“If we will have to use the new technology, then the law must be amended,” the EDSIEC boss added.
However, the party stalwarts are talking tough ahead of the election. State Chairman of the Labour Party, Kelly Ogbaloi, expressed his party’s readiness for the election, while calling for a free and fair election.
He said, “The expectation is that there will be a level playing ground and we are telling EDSIEC to match action with words.
“What happened in the past when ruling parties cook up figures to aid their victory cannot be replicated in this election. The world has become dynamic and the ways of doing things have become digital and technical. I can say that we will be able to withstand whatever methods that they are coming up with this time. The situation cannot remain the way it was in the past.
“There are legal reasons why BVAS will not be used at this election. But we do not want to say that in the absence of the BVAS, the election will be manipulated because even when BVAS was used in the last election, it didn’t work the magic that we expected. Manipulation is possible no matter what is used for the polls. So, we are not deterred as a party. We are ready to do all that is required to be successful in this election.
