Ahead of the governorship election scheduled for tomorrow in Anambra State, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said that it would deploy six National Commissioners and 15 Resident Electoral Commissioners to supervise the governorship election in the state, in which 23 political parties will be fielding candidates. In a statement signed by Nick Dazang, Head of INEC Publicity Division, the commission stated that the election would take place in all the 21 local government areas with a total of 1,784,506 registered voters. For the election, the commission said that the state has a total number of 4,608 polling units and 326 registration areas. Also, Anambra State has 120 Super Registration Centres (RACs) and 6,851 Voting Points. Dazang said INEC will be deploying 12,622 election officials (permanent and ad hoc) to conduct the election. Giving further details, the commission said: “There shall be one returning officer for the governorship election; 21 local government collation officers; 326 registration area collation officers; 326 supervising presiding officers; 120 registration area (RA) supervisors; 4,608 presiding officers (NYSC/ FTI); and 6,851 assistant presiding officers.
“The number of supervisors (including National Commissioners, Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) and Directors are as follows: National Commissioners - 6; RECs - 15; Registration Area (RA) cluster supervisors – 120,” INEC said. Meanwhile, as voters go to the polls tomorrow, the All Progressives Congress (APC) has asked President Goodluck Jonathan to make good his promise of a free and fair election by ensuring there is a level playing field for all the parties. The party said Jonathan's claim that the country had witnessed an improvement in the electoral architecture under his watch, had so far not been proven in the elections in Ondo and Delta States. In a statement issued yesterday by APC’s interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party alleged nothing in Anambra so far points to the fact that Saturday's election will be free, fair and transparent, despite the president's promise. “Rightly or wrongly in our country, institutions of state take a cue from the president’s body language. They know that members of the ruling PDP who engaged in electoral malfeasance and brigandage during last month's Delta Central Senatorial election were not punished. “They know that security agencies that turned themselves to the armed wing of the PDP were not sanctioned. In this context, therefore, the president's promise of a free and fair election will not mean much to those bent on repeating same in Anambra,” it said. APC also pointed to the apparent inaction exhibited by INEC over the glaring electoral offence by one of the candidates in tomorrow’s election, Willie Obiano of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) through his
proven multiple registration, saying that it does not give anyone much confidence that INEC can indeed be trusted to ensure a level playing field for all the parties. “President Jonathan should be careful about staking the credibility of his high office on these elections. His promise of free and fair elections in Ondo did not materialise, as the world knows, and the unprecedented electoral heist in Delta does not back up his administration’s claim that the country's electoral architecture has improved under his watch. “That is why we say the president must walk the talk. He should know that talk is cheap. If the institutions of state that have any role to play in the election fail to live up to that role, and the ruling party continues to engage in the flagrant abuse of office by stealing votes in the most blatant of manners, then the president's promise of a free and fair election would have been rubbished,” the party said. The party warned that the world will be keenly watching tomorrow to see how INEC, the police and other security agencies carry out their roles, to see how the PDP, which is not even in a pole position going into the polls, wants to emerge victorious, and to see whether all that matters to the president is a free and fair election - as he has promised – or the rubbishing, at all cost, of the APC. But in a quick riposte to APC, the PDP dismissed the opposition party, saying it was merely crying wolf ahead of the Anambra governorship election because it knows that the people have rejected them. The PDP, in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh, yesterday also
said it was proud of the president’s stand on electoral transparency and credible polls at all levels across the country. “The APC is now living in morbid fear because the people of Anambra State and the South- east in general have rejected it on account of its tribal stance and hatred for the region as demonstrated in its sectional and anti-people policies, including the recent deportation of Anambra State indigenes from Lagos. “This resulted in untold hardship and death of some of the victims, who were severally tortured before being dumped at Upper Iweka Head Bridge in Onitsha in the dead of the night,” PDP said. The PDP, which described the APC as a party of propagandists and the deceitful also wondered why they restricted themselves to criticising elections only in states in which they lost such as Ondo and Delta, but saw nothing wrong in states where they won such as Edo, even when stakeholders in such states had raised credibility issues. PDP stressed that contrary to claims by the opposition, the president has remained resolute in his commitment to a free and fair election as reflected in his mantra of one man, one vote, noting that the drastic reduction in electoral disputes under his administration were a clear testimony in this regard. Lashing out at the APC for not imbibing the spirit of sportsmanship when it is defeated as demonstrated by the PDP on many occasions, the PDP said the president has remained open and objective on election issues, adding, “It is on record that the president has always congratulated candidates who won in free and fair elections irrespective of the parties they belong.” The PDP, therefore, advised the opposition to “wake up to the reality of its rejection by the people and look elsewhere to cast its lame vituperations.”
