Rising from a meeting on Friday evening in Abuja, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) announced that the supplementary election for the Anambra State governorship seat would now hold on Saturday, 30th November 2013.
This is to ensure that the exercise is conducted in the 65 units where it was cancelled recently, although some of the candidates in the election are threatening to boycott it and even go to court if the supplementary election is held. They are demanding outright cancellation of the exercise believed to have been fraught with irregularities.
Speaking after the meeting, INEC chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega stated that although the commission failed to meet the expectations of Nigerians concerning the election, INEC’s decision at the meeting did not include cancellation of the entire election held of 16th November 2013 since there was no basis for it
As declared by INEC so far, Willie Obiano of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) scored 174,710 votes while Tony Nwoye of PDP got 94,956 and Chris Ngige of the All Progressive Congress (APC) scored 92,300 votes. The Labour Party candidate, Ifeanyi Uba scored 37,446 votes.
Meanwhile, the All Progressives Congress (APC) has rejected INEC’s plan to hold supplementary election in Anambra State on 30th November 30.
“We will not be a party to what is obviously a travesty of election by a self-discredited and conniving electoral umpire,” the party said in a statement issued in Lagos on late Friday by its Interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed.
APC further expressed “absolute shock and incredulity that INEC could even talk of organising a supplementary election, despite the weight of credible evidence presented by the party as well as election monitors/observers that what transpired on 16th November was nothing but a sham.
“This announcement has confirmed our worst fears that INEC is working in cahoots with the PDP and the Presidency to ensure that no election ever counts in Nigeria. The INEC chairman himself was the first to admit that a senior official of the commission compromised the election in one local government in Anambra.
“We, on our own part, were able to establish that materials meant for several LGs that were the strongholds of our candidate were diverted; that out of the about 1.7 million registered voters in Anambra, only a little over 400,000 were accredited to vote; and that the voters’ register was apparently tampered with to remove many names and disenfranchise thousands of voters.
“Yet, the same electoral body that admitted that the election was compromised has turned around to validate it by its decision to organise supplementary election instead of cancelling the parody of election and holding a fresh one. This is a sad day indeed”.
The party added that it is now obvious that Nigerians cannot count on INEC to organise a free, fair and credible election anywhere in the country, hence Nigerians must now take their fate in their own hands to ensure that the principle of one man, one vote is sacrosanct.
