By Emmanuel Ndukuba, Awka
Major political parties, including the APC, PDP, LP, and YPP, may be up in arms against the Anambra State Independent Electoral Commission (ANSIEC) over a hurriedly appointed date for local government elections in the state.
Without their input, the parties have protested against the Sept. 28, 2024, council poll and threatened to challenge the action in court.
Following the commission’s announcement of the poll date, they boycotted the first stakeholder meeting.
Persecondnews recalls that Mrs. Genevieve Osakwe-led ANSIEC announced the council poll date on Monday, August 12, while the State House of Assembly hurriedly amended and passed ANSIEC and local government law on Tuesday.
The move was to give legality to the conduct of council polls, as the state-led All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) had already planned ahead of it with the recently concluded primary elections.
Gov. Chukwuma Soludo state-led APGA in the state had already nominated 21 local government chairmanship candidates and 326 councillorship candidates for the council poll, while the other political parties had yet to do so and were taken aback by the sudden date.
Speaking at the stakeholders meeting on Thursday, Osakwe, the Chairman of ANSIEC, said the Commission has been working “tirelessly day and night” towards the poll.
According to her, the Commission also recognized the importance of involving critical stakeholders in their discussions to address key issues that must be communicated to Anambra people to ensure the “elections are free, fair, and credible.”
“My team and I believe that this meeting is crucial for us to gather your insights, identify critical success factors, and explore value-adding opinions that will help us achieve the objectives of the Commission,” she said.
The political parties had raised concerns about failure on the part of the Anambra government to follow due process and the hasty arrangement for the poll on short notice.
The parties absent from the stakeholders meeting included the All Progressives Congress (APC), the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), the Labour Party (LP), and the Young Political Party (YPP).
However, APGA, Action Alliance (AA), and the Social Democratic Party (SDP) attended the meeting.
Reacting, Chief Basil Ejidike, the state APC chairman, said the party would issue a position after a meeting on Friday.
“You will hear from us after the meeting. We are going to have a meeting of the Inter Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) made up of all the political parties, and we are working together.
“What they are planning to do is unacceptable to us, the political parties. They have already failed from the beginning because there must be a level playing field for everybody.
“You cannot continue changing the goalposts while the game is on. So you will hear from us after the meeting, and it has to be a collective decision,” he said.
Sir Nobert Okoli, the Chairman of the AA, said the announced date for the council poll was unacceptable. The political parties, as stakeholders, should be fully involved in the election process.
“You cannot conduct the election without the political parties, and their exclusion is a very bad signal for the upcoming election and should be corrected.
“For us in the AA, we support every due process carried out by ANSIEC, but if they act contrary, we, as a party, have our own actions to take.”
Also speaking, the representative of the SDP Chairman, Mr. Vincent Chukwurah, and Chairmanship candidate for Awka South local government area, Prince Charles Ekwunife, argued that the election date was too sudden.
They suggested that more time be given to political parties to prepare and nominate candidates.
The APGA candidates are current members of the Transition Committees, and the party has confirmed its decision to nominate the chairmen and councilors whose three-month terms end in September.
Chief Ifeatu Obi-Okoye, Chairman of the APGA, said the party had three provisions in its Constitution for the nomination of candidates, including through primary elections, affirmation, and consensus.”
“You may recall that we recently held a stakeholder election to nominate three names for the post of chairman, from which the governor selected one as the local government chairman.
“We then held our primary election and nominated our candidates by consensus, and they are now our candidates for the election,” he said.
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