INEC vows to go on with governorship poll

chika ebuzor

November 3, 2016 4:37 AM

INEC made the announcement following alleged plans by the PDP to call for the postponement of the Ondo poll.

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The electoral body made the announcement following reports that a faction of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is planning to mount pressure on it to move the election.

INEC also added that the internal crisis rocking the PDP is not enough reason to postpone the governorship poll.

According to Punch, the Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman, Rotimi Oyekanmi,“The process for postponing or shifting of elections are spelt out in the Electoral Act as amended. One of the reasons is natural disaster. No aspect of the reasons stated for this include intra-party crisis as we are witnessing in the party you have mentioned.

“Under the Electoral Act, intra-party conflict is not recognised as one of the reasons why INEC must shift the date of an election we have given notice of since March.

“As I speak today, there is no plan to postpone it. We are going ahead with the election as slated for November 26.”

Adding that “there are 40 political parties in Nigeria and if there is crisis in at least half of them, you can imagine what we would be going through and how many times we would be postponing the election.”

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This is coming as the Ahmed Makarfi faction is contesting INEC’s choice of Jimoh Ibrahim as the PDP guber candidate for the upcoming election.

Reacting to the electoral body’s nomination of Ibrahim as the PDP flag-bearer in the Ondo election, Governor Ayo Fayose of Ekiti state aid the businessman will never become Governor.

chika ebuzor