The Ekiti State Independent Electoral Commission (EKSIEC) has said it will conduct a free, fair and transparent council election on December 4 that will be acceptable to participating parties.
EKSIEC Chairman Justice Jide Aladejana, speaking yesterday at the commission’s office in Ado-Ekiti, said that the electoral body would not allow any politician to hijack and manipulate the election.
He said that six political parties, which were screened and accredited, would participate in the election out of the 10 that indicated interests.
Aladejana listed the parties as: Action Alliance (AA), African Democratic Congress (ADC), All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), All Progressives Congress (APC), National Reduce Movement (NRM) and Young Progressives Party (YPP).
He said the election will hold in the 16 local governments and 19 Local Council Development Areas(LCDAs) across the 2,195 polling units.
“We are going to make this election free, fair and credible. This is our target and nothing can stop us. We won’t allow anyone to manipulate the process. We are going to be as transparent as possible by monitoring the process and ensuring that the people’s votes count,” Aladejana said.
The SIEC chairman said that the sensitive materials for the conduct of the election would only be made public on the eve of the election, to avoid manipulations.
He said the fact that the main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), will boycott the election doesn’t vitiate the process, adding that they did it out of their volition.
“All of us are participants in the electoral system, but the only difference is that the political parties must sponsor candidates. A delegation of the PDP visited the day the collection of expression of intent forms was to close.
‘They said they had just got clearance from the national body to participate in the election and sought extension of time, which I said I couldn’t do alone.
“They left on the note that they would send somebody to get the forms that day. As we are talking now, no form was collected. In some areas where only one candidate emerged, we were empowered by the law to extend by seven days, despite; they didn’t come to collect the form.”
On the actions taken by the commission to sensitise the voters and reduce vote apathy, Aladejana said that the commission did well in this area through extensive consultations with parties and voters.
“The elections held in 2019 had 32 per cent participation, which was above governorship and presidential elections. We did much sensitisation for our people.
“We are ready for this election. We have trained our ad hoc workers and the electoral officers in the 16 local governments and 19 LCDAs. We will work with security agencies to caution those who may wish to disrupt the election,” he said.