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Tag: Inec

  • Breaking:Court compels INEC to include Bayelsa units in supplementary poll

    The Federal High Court sitting in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, has ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to include omitted units in supplementary election scheduled on Saturday for Brass Constituency 1.

    The court presided over by Justice E. Inyang made the order in a motion ex parte filed by Preye Brodrick and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) against INEC.

    The court ruled that INEC should conduct supplementary elections in polling units 11-16; units 1-10 and 17 to 21 of Ward 6 in Brass Constituency 1 of the state on March 23 or any other day determined by the defendant (INEC).

    On grounds for the application, the plaintiff had told the court that elections did not hold in the affected units in line with the guidelines of INEC.

    Read Also: Updated: Tribunal sacks Osun Governor, declares Adeleke winner

    The plaintiff said: “Elections did not hold in units 1-10 and units 17-21 of Ward 6 of Brass Constituency 1 in the Bayelsa State House of Assembly elections which held on March 9, 2019.

    “By the regulations and guidelines for the conduct of the elections in 2019, the elections are deemed to be postponed and supplementary elections ought to be conducted in the said units. It is in the interest of justice to grant the prayers sought”.

    The court upheld all the grounds while making the order.

  • INEC distributes materials for supplementary election in Benue

    The Independent National Electoral Commission ( INEC ) says it has distributed sensitive materials across the 23 local government areas of Benue in readiness for Saturday’s supplementary polls.

    Mr Terkaa Andyarigeria, the INEC Public Relations Officer (PRO) in the state, disclosed this in a telephone interview with our reporter in Makurdi.

    It was gathered that the March 23 Governorship Supplementary Election will hold in 22 out of the 23 local government areas of the State.

    The only local government area in the state where the governorship supplementary election will not be holding is Katsina-Ala.

    However, the supplementary election for the state House of Assembly will hold in Katsina-Ala and nine other local government areas of the state.

    Even where the supplementary elections will be taking place, not the entire local government areas will be participating, but only places where elections didn’t take place at all or where elections were cancelled.

    NAN

  • Rivers: INEC to resume collation of election  results 

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has fixed April 13 for supplementary election in  Rivers State.

    Besides, the commission is to resume collation of results of the last governorship and state Assembly elections from April 2 to 5.

    INEC, however, noted that election had been concluded in 21 state constituencies.

    The collation of the results for the election held on March 9 was suspended due to violence.

    The Commission set up a Fact-Finding Committee that visited the state and submitted its report which revealed that while election could not hold in a few areas, they were successfully concluded in others with the declaration of winners in 21 state constituencies. Collation was ongoing at the time of the suspension of the process.

    Announcing the outlined activities and timeline to resolve the electoral logjam in the state, the INEC National Commissioner in charge of Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, said the commission will on March 30 meet with critical actors in the state after which the headquarters of the commission will release a guideline for the continuation of the process.

    Okoye spoke at a press briefing at the commission’s headquarters in Abuja. He noted that there will also be an inter-agency meeting between the commission and others a day before the stakeholders meeting in Rivers.

    Revalidation of observers, the commission said, will be done simultaneously in Abuja and Rivers State between March 25 and March 31.

    The state chapters of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) disagreed over the new timeline given by INEC to conclude elections in the states.

    The APC, through its Publicity Secretary Chris Finebone declared that INEC’s announcement was suspect and received with mixed feelings, since the electoral commission had not shown sufficient good faith.

    PDP Chairman Felix Obuah , in a press statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Jerry Needam stated that members of the party received the INEC’s news with optimism.

    Rivers APC said: “As a major stakeholder in the Rivers State political space, APC received with mixed feelings, INEC’s timeline for concluding the governorship and House of Assembly elections that started on March 9. INEC has not shown sufficient good faith in the way it brought the collation to an abrupt stop (on March 10), without cogent, verifiable and convincing reasons.

    “The supposed umpire (INEC) went ahead to announce that collation for 17 local government areas (out of 23 LGAs in Rivers) had been concluded, as against the records provided by our situation room. And to make matters worse, INEC refused, failed or neglected to name the said 17 LGAs where it claimed collation had been concluded.

    “INEC curiously announced that it had dropped four LGAs’ collation officers confirmed to be PDP card-carrying members, without the umpire clearing the air about the status of the LGAs’ results the four ad hoc personnel supposedly collated.”

    The main opposition APC, which backed the African Action Congress (AAC), since court order did not allow it to present candidates for the elections, also wondered why the four indicted collation officers of INEC would be unfit for the job, while the collations they conducted were acceptable.

    The party said: “Why is INEC jittery to name the 17 local government areas, if not for the simple reason that some underhand dealings might have taken place, for which it is covering up? With the violation of the collation process by Governor Nyesom Wike when he stormed the Obio/Akpor LGA Collation Centre (at the council’s secretariat in Rumuodomaya, Port Harcourt in the night of March 9), where his Chief Security Officer (CSO) and security detail shot an army captain and other soldiers in the process, why does it seem that INEC’s body language is suggesting that Obio/Akpor LGA’s collation has been completed?

    “To the APC, INEC is up to some mischief, clearly pointing to a clear determination to rig the overall results of the March 9 elections in favour of Wike and the PDP. The signs are visible enough to the blind and loud enough to the deaf. All the shenanigans so far exhibited by INEC only go to confirm that fear.”

    PDP chairman said: “Even though we frown at the length of the timeline issued by INEC for the collation, declaration and conclusion of the election process in Rivers State, we received the news with optimism. Rivers State PDP is waiting patiently for the process to be concluded, because the people of Rivers State overwhelmingly voted for our party.

    “We urge Rivers people to remain calm, as the mandate they freely gave to Governor Wike and the PDP on March 9 will be affirmed at the end of the collation process. Victory for the PDP will come at the end of the exercise. Rivers State is PDP. The people massively voted for the PDP, as all the figures indicate.”

    On the letter by Rivers elders to President Muhammadu Buhari to intervene in Rivers political crisis, to prevent anarchy, Obuah berated the eminent personalities, including a former governor of the state, Chief Rufus Ada-George; and an ex- Culture Minister Alabo Tonye Graham-Douglas.

    He described Ada-George, Graham-Douglas and others as self-acclaimed elders and card-carrying members of the APC, who, according to him, were allegedly working for Transportation Minister Rotimi Amaechi, a former Rivers governor.

     

  • 2019 election materials safe, open for inspection, says INEC

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Akwa Ibom State yesterday said all materials used for the general elections were safe and ready for inspection by any party who followed laid down procedure for inspection.

    The state INEC gave the assurance while refuting allegations by some persons who claimed the commission colluded with the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Essien Udium Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State to rig election by destroying ballot papers thumb printed in favour of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

    Reacting to an advertorial titled  “Political Jobbers on the prowl,” published in this newspaper on March 16, spokesman for INEC in Akwa Ibom Don Etukudo described the allegation as deliberate falsehood, misinformation and the attempt to malign the commission and the person of the Resident Electoral Commissioner.

    Etukudo said INEC’s bus was involved in an accident in which the driver and three others became unconscious while on reverse logistics duty, adding that it was a directive from the commission’s headquarters in order to safeguard electoral materials.

    He said: “While the commission does not intend to join issues with anyone or group of persons on the conduct of the just concluded elections as it believes that the nation’s electoral laws have adequately provided due process for complaints, it is however pertinent to address the deliberate falsehood, misinformation and the attempt to malign the commission and the person of the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), as contained in the said advertorial.

    “The commission refers here to the claim in paragraph 6 of the advert to the effect that its truck which was involved in an accident at Abak on March 12, 2019, was conveying “ballot papers earlier voted in favour of the APC and that they “were being transported to a location near INEC office in Uyo for destruction and subsequent replacement with ballot papers fraudulently thumb printed…”

    “This is not true. It is a clear mischief and a lame attempt to hoodwink the reading public and blackmail the commission for insisting on upholding the integrity of the electoral process in Akwa Ibom State.

    “On March 12, at about 4pm, the commission’s vehicle which was undertaking reverse logistics from INEC office Eastern Obolo, to the state office got involved in an accident at Oku Abak, a few meters away from the Abak Police Station.

    The accident was duly incidental in the Abak Police Station.

    “The driver of the vehicle and the other three occupants became unconscious owing to the accident and could not have responded to questions as alleged by the advertorial. The claim that “the driver of the truck on interrogation confessed that was the sixth trip that day shuttling to different PDP stalwart houses…” is therefore unfounded, spurious and mischievous.

    “Reverse logistics from LGA offices to state offices was a national directive from the commission’s headquarters to all RECs. It was not peculiar to Akwa lbom State. The exercise is ongoing nationwide. This fact is verifiable.

    “In the light of the failed attempts in some LGAs to disrupt elections in Akwa Ibom State by bombing and setting INEC offices and vehicles ablaze (as in Ibesikpo, Obot Akara and Mkpat Enin LGAs, for instance) before, during and after the elections, the directive of the National Headquarters is amply justified.

    “In implementing this directive, the commission in Akwa lbom State was careful to rigorously follow the laid down procedure. It duly informed the Commissioner of Police in the state who is also the Chairman of the Inter

    Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES), a body made up of all security agencies in the state. It was therefore no secret that the commission was retrieving materials used for the elections from the field for safe custody in the state headquarters.

    “The commission hereby assures the public that materials used for the 2019 General Elections are safe and open for inspection by any party on application or as may be directed by an appropriate authority,” he said.

  • Court schedules judgment for March 25 in Bauchi gov poll

    A Federal High Court in Abuja has slated judgment for March 25 this year in the case filed by the Governor of Bauchi State Mohammed Abubakar and the All Progressives Congress (APC) challenging the decision of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to resume collation exercise in the state’s gubernatorial election.

    INEC had declared the election inconclusive on the grounds that the number of cancelled votes was higher than the margin of lead between the two top political parties.

    The electoral body later announced it would resuming collation because it found out that the number of cancelled votes was tampered with, stating instead of 2,533, 25,330 was written, a decision Abubakar and the APC are now challenging in court.

    It is the plaintiffs’ contention that INEC has no power to overrule the pronouncement of the Returning Officer, who had declared the election inconclusive.

    The plaintiffs, represented by Ahmed Raji (SAN), asked the court to determine whether any other person or body, except a court of competent jurisdiction, has the powers to overrule a returning officer whose pronouncement ought to be final in an election process.

    INEC, represented by Tanimu Inuwa (SAN), filed an objection, in which it argued that the court lacks jurisdiction to entertain any case that deals with issues of an election or any of its processes. The commission claims that such cases ought to be heard by the election petitions tribunal.

    READ ALSO: INEC to conduct Bauchi supplementary polls in 15 LGAs – REC

    While arguing his client’s case on Thursday, Raji contended that elections petitions tribunal could only entertain cases where a return has been made by the INEC returning officer, but where no return has been made, as is the case in Bauchi, the election petitions tribunal is powerless.

    He added: “If the court shut us out, by saying it has no jurisdiction, and the election petitions tribunal shut us out because a return has not been made, to whom shall we go? We would be left in the lurch. Do not leave us in the lurch, my Lord.”

    He argued that while INEC consulted with the various political parties before it declared the election inconclusive, the commissioner reversed the decision and unilaterally announced that collation would resume, in violation of his clients’ right to fair hearing.

    Raji urged the court to overrule INEC’s objection to the suit filed by his client’s prayers but to grant them the reliefs they sought.

    On his part, Inuwa said that the Electoral Act did not allow any court to entertain any issue bordering on election or any of its processes, and since what was being argued is the issue of collation of result, which is an election process, the court lacked jurisdiction to hear the matter.

    He contended that, INEC,  being an independent body, did not need to consult anyone before taking any decision on an election matter, hence the issue of denying the APC and Abubakar fair hearing does not arise.

    Inuwa added that since the election was not yet completed, Abubakar and the APC ought to have waited for a return to be made.

    He added that it was only after a return is made that the plaintiffs can approach the election petitions tribunal with their complaints, rather than jumping the gun and coming to the federal high court which, according to him, clearly lacks jurisdiction in the matter.

    After listening to arguments from parties, Justice Inyang Ekwo adjourned to March 25 for judgment.

  • PDP alleges plot by military to hijack supplementary polls

    The Peoples Democratic Party ( PDP ) has alerted of a clandestine plot by the military in cahoots with officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to hijack the March 23 governorship supplementary elections coming up in six states.

    At a media briefing in Abuja on Thursday, the spokesman for the PDP, Kola Ologbondiyan, said the alleged plot was hatched at a meeting the Presidency held with security agencies and officials of INEC.

    Describing the alleged plot as obnoxious, the PDP said its candidates were already leading and coasting to inevitable victory in all the states where the supplementary elections are billed to hold, vowing that nothing can alter this reality.

    INEC has listed Kano, Bauchi, Benue, Plateau and Sokoto states for the supplementary elections.

    The PDP cautioned the governing All Progressives Congress (APC) and “agents” of the Presidency to know that Nigerians will never be intimidated.

    Ologbondiyan vowed the electorate in the affected states will confront and crush any oppressive force that attempts to defy and subvert their will in the supplementary polls.

    The party spokesman said the PDP has full information on every move by the APC to manipulate the electoral process, stressing that not all Nigerians in the present government subscribe to their cruelty, resort to violence as well as suppression of votes.

    The PDP alleged that part of the plot was a directive by a top military chief to the INEC chairman of INEC, Prof Mahmood Yakubu not to declare the Rivers State Governor, Mr Nyesom Wike as winner of the March 9 election, even though he won the poll.

    INEC had suspended the collation of results of the Rivers State governorship election but had announced on Thursday that the exercise will resume on April 2.

    The PDP continued: “Our party is informed of how a top Army officer, at the meeting, directed the INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, not to ever declare Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike as winner of the Rivers governorship election, even when it is clear to all that he won the election.

    “We also have details how a top military officer, who is from Bauchi state, at the meeting, directed INEC Chairman not to declare our victorious Bauchi state governorship candidate, Sen. Bala Mohammed, as the winner of the Bauchi state governorship election.

    “The PDP is also privy to how a Director of one of our security agencies, who was at the meeting, undertook to use his agency to deliver Kano state to the APC.”

    The party further alleged it was also decided at the meeting that 30 Department of State Service (DSS) operatives and 300 mobile policemen be deployed to each of the states where the supplementary elections are billed to hold.

    According to the PDP, the security operatives to be so deployed have been given standing instruction to take over those states and make effort to ambush the process, seeing that the PDP is bound to win.

    “In spite of all, the PDP wants the Buhari Presidency and the APC to come to terms with the fact that their conspiracies will be of no avail as our candidates are marching to unassailable victory with the people.

    “The PDP reminds our military that Nigerians will not hesitate to treat individuals in military uniform, who illegally involved in the supplementary election, as fake soldiers. After all, the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai, has declared that uniformed personnel, who helped APC to rig presidential election, were fake.

    “It is imperative to state that under President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, elections have been turned into warfare against the people but Nigerians will never allow a situation where states are forcefully taken over like spoils of war.

    “It is also highly provocative that the INEC Chairman, Prof. Yakubu, is now taking orders from the military to cancel elections and alter results for the APC, instead of asserting the independence and impartiality of INEC under our laws.

    “Such annexation of the Prof. Yakubu-led INEC by the Buhari Presidency is the only reason the governorship elections in Bauchi, Plateau, Kano, Sokoto, Adamawa, Benue and Rivers states, which were won by the PDP are declared inconclusive.

    “It is obvious that the elections were stalled in these states just because the PDP was in the lead. If the APC had been in the lead as in Ogun, INEC would not have batted an eyelid before pronouncing the results in favor of APC.

    “In all, the PDP wants the APC, INEC and their compromised security officials to be informed that the states, where supplementary elections have been scheduled, are home to the PDP and that our votes can never be stolen.

    “The PDP cautions INEC to note that the people already know the number of voters with Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) in these states and will never accept any padding of the voter register to favour the APC.

    “The PDP therefore charges all our members, teeming supporters and all lovers of democracy in these states to remain steadfast in resisting the APC and marching out en-mass to their polling units this Saturday to consolidate their victory against oppressive forces in our land,” the party added.

  • Rivers: INEC to resume collation of election results

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has fixed 13th April 2p19 for supplementary election in Rivets state.

    Besides, the commission is to resume collation of results of the last governorship and state Assembly election between April 2nd to 5th.

    INEC However noted that election had been concluded in 21 state constituencies.

    The collation of the results for the election held on March 9 was suspended due to violence allegedly carried out by soldiers and armed thugs.

    Consequently, the Commission set up a Fact-Finding Committee that visited Rivers State and submitted its report which revealed that while election could not hold in a few areas, it was successfully concluded in others with the declaration of winners in 21 state constituencies.

    Collation was ongoing at the time of the suspension of the process.

    Announcing the outlined activities and timeline to resolve the electoral logjam in Rivers State, INEC National Commissioner in charge of Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, said the commission will on 30th March 2019 have a meeting with critical actors in the state after which the headquarters of the commission will release a guideline for the continuation of the process.

    Okoye who disclosed this at a press briefing at the commission’s headquarters in Abuja noted that there will also be an inter-agency meeting between the commission and other relevant agencies a day before the stakeholders meeting in Rivers.

    Revalidation of observers, the commission said, will be done simultaneously in Abuja and Rivers State between March 25 and March 31.

  • 2019 election materials safe, open for inspection, says INEC

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Akwa Ibom State Thursday said all materials used for the general elections were safe and ready for inspection by any party who followed laid down procedure for inspection.

    The state INEC gave the assurance while refuting allegations by some persons who claimed the commission colluded with the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Essien Udium Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State to rig election by destroying ballot papers thumb printed in favour of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

    Reacting to an advertorial titled “Political Jobbers on the prowl,” published in this newspaper on March 16, spokesman for INEC in Akwa Ibom Don Etukudo described the allegation as deliberate falsehood, misinformation and the attempt to malign the commission and the person of the Resident Electoral Commissioner.

    Etukudo said INEC’s bus was involved in an accident in which the driver and three others became unconscious while on reverse logistics duty, adding that it was a directive from the commission’s headquarters in order to safeguard electoral materials.

    He said: “While the commission does not intend to join issues with anyone or group of persons on the conduct of the just concluded elections as it believes that the nation’s electoral laws have adequately provided due process for complaints, it is however pertinent to address the deliberate falsehood, misinformation and the attempt to malign the commission and the person of the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), as contained in the said advertorial.

    Read Also: INEC to conduct Bauchi supplementary polls in 15 LGAs – REC

    “The commission refers here to the claim in paragraph 6 of the advert to the effect that its truck which was involved in an accident at Abak on March 12, 2019, was conveying “ballot papers earlier voted in favour of the APC and that they “were being transported to a location near INEC office in Uyo for destruction and subsequent replacement with ballot papers fraudulently thumb printed…”

    “This is not true. It is a clear mischief and a lame attempt to hoodwink the reading public and blackmail the commission for insisting on upholding the integrity of the electoral process in Akwa Ibom State.

    “On March 12, at about 4pm, the commission’s vehicle which was undertaking reverse logistics from INEC office Eastern Obolo, to the state office got involved in an accident at Oku Abak, a few meters away from the Abak Police Station.

    The accident was duly incidented in the Abak Police Station.

    “The driver of the vehicle and the other three occupants became unconscious owing to the accident and could not have responded to questions as alleged by the advertorial. The claim that “the driver of the truck on interrogation confessed that was the sixth trip that day shuttling to different PDP stalwart houses…” is therefore unfounded, spurious and mischievous.

    “Reverse logistics from LGA offices to state offices was a national directive from the commission’s headquarters to all RECs. It was not peculiar to Akwa lbom State. The exercise is ongoing nationwide. This fact is verifiable.

    “In the light of the failed attempts in some LGAs to disrupt elections in Akwa Ibom State by bombing and setting INEC offices and vehicles ablaze (as in Ibesikpo, Obot Akara and Mkpat Enin LGAs, for instance) before, during and after the elections, the directive of the National Headquarters is amply justified.

    “In implementing this directive, the commission in Akwa lbom State was careful to rigorously follow the laid down procedure. It duly informed the Commissioner of Police in the state who is also the Chairman of the Inter Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES), a body made up of all security agencies in the state. It was therefore no secret that the commission was retrieving materials used for the elections from the field for safe custody in the state headquarters.

    “The commission hereby assures the public that materials used for the 2019 General Elections are safe and open for inspection by any party on application or as may be directed by an appropriate authority,” he said.

  • PDP threatens to boycott Bauchi gov rerun

    A rerun of the gubernatorial election in Bauchi will hold in 15 local government areas where 22,759 votes were cancelled, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said.

    The Resident Electoral Commissioner Ibrahim Abdullahi who disclosed this to reporters in Bauchi on Thursday said the supplementary election will hold on March 23.

    He stated the rerun election will be held in 36 Polling covering 29 registration areas (wards) in the 15 affected local government areas with 22,759 registered voters equally affected.

    He further said that rerun election will not hold in Tafawa Balewa local government area until after the ruling of the Federal High Court in Abuja.

    The REC appealed to the public, especially the people of Tafawa Balewa local government area, to be calm and wait for the outcome of the court ruling.

    But the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Bauchi state has described the supplementary election as a sham threatening not to participate in it.

    Its chairman, Alhaji Hamza Koshe Akuyam told reporters: “The supplementary election is a sham, INEC wants to conduct rerun because 22, 759 people were disenfranchised in 15 LGA, meanwhile 139, 240 were disenfranchised in Tafawa Balewa local government area.

    “I don’t know what INEC is up to. Maybe they are reading somebody’s script. We are not going to participate in this election.

    “Our legal team will look at this matter though it is not just about going to court but for INEC to do the right thing.”

    The PDP Chairman stated that the party will go to court and seek a redress.

    But the All Progressive Congress (APC) in the state says it is well prepared for the supplementary election.

    Its chairman Ubah Nana told reporters the party is readily prepared for the re-run.

    “15 LGAs will be having rerun this Saturday and we are participating .Though the proper thing to be done was for the rerun to be held in the 15 LGA and Tafawa Balewa but unfortunately it was not the case .

    “We are fully prepared. I don’t know why some people seem not to be fully prepared. I don’t know why they are afraid.

    “Let the game be played according to the rules,” he stated.

    Tafawa Balewa local government area was excluded from the rerun as INEC, in compliance with a court order restraining it from resuming with the collation and announcement of result for the LGA, discontinued with the process.

    A Federal High Court in Abuja had barred the Commission (INEC) from collation of result of the governorship election of March 9 in Bauchi State in an order given by Justice Inyang Ekwo on Tuesday following an ex parte application filed by the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the incumbent governor of the state, Mohammed Abubakar.

  • We’re ready for supplementary election in Kano, says INEC

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Kano said they are set to organize supplementary governorship election in 28 affected Local Government Areas in the state.

    Addressing newsmen at the Kano INEC headquarters, the Resident Electrical Commissioner (REC) in charge of the state, Prof.Riskuwa Shehu Arabi, said the election will take place in 75 registration areas, involving 207 polling units and 279 voting points.

    According to him, 128, 324 eligible voters will participate in the crucial Kano governorship supplementary election.

    He added that INEC will deploy 207 card readers for the election, adding that enough manpower has also been mobilized, with three RECs from Zamfara, Kebbi and Ogun states to assist so as to have a successful election.

    He said deployment of sensitize and non-sensitive materials to all the affected Local Government Areas will commence by 10 a:m Friday, adding that adequate security arrangements have been made.

    Read Also: INEC to conduct Bauchi supplementary polls in 15 LGAs – REC

    He further stated that sorting and batching of the materials will commence immediately they arrive at their respective Local Government Areas.

    According to him, “we are working to make sure that we don’t have any distraction. We have held a series of meetings with stakeholders to review our strategies.

    “We have also held meeting with leaders of both political parties, and we have made them to understand that the election is not a war.

    “They have also promised to talk to their supporters to conduct themselves in peaceful manner. Securities agencies have assured us of adequate security.

    “I am sure the Commissioner of Police has been talking to different groups of people, particularly, the youths. I am very confident we will have a peaceful election on Saturday.”