Writing by Teddy Daniels; Editing By Yusuf Zubairu
The People’s Democratic Party -PDP in Kaduna state has condemned the alleged distortion of the state local government electoral law by the APC to favor them in the forth coming election.
The State Chairman of the party Edward Marsha made the condemnation during a press conference at the Nigerian Union of Journalists’ Secretariat in Kaduna.
Edward Marsha explained that the section of the local government electoral law that allows for chairmanship and councilorship results to be announced first at the pooling units and ward collation centers respectively were tempered with.
“we raise a red flag for the local government election that is coming up on the 19th October this year which we noticed a deliberate attempt to maneuver the process that is meant to be free and fair as enshrined by the law
“the state chairperson of SEICOM ,the state speaker of the house and the office of the attorney general of the state are working in tandem to change the already signed local government electoral law, he said.
He lamented that any manipulation of the electoral law to serve certain interest will deny the people their legitimate rights to vote for people of their choice at the forth coming elections.
‘Instead of announcing the election results first at the polling units by the presiding officer, where the results of each participating party would be declared, polling units should then gather their results at the ward collation centers, where the ward returning officer will collate the results and announce the winners.”
‘furthermore ,the retuning officer in charge of the local government will also collate results from all the wards and then declare the chairman and the chairperson that emerge victorious
“In this new law that we have before you that was done without the awareness of PDP state legislatures , results will no longer be announced at the ward and local government collation centers, rather the chairperson of SEICOM would have sole right and responsibility to announce all results at the headquarters ,or she may authorize any person to announce results at any designation area of her will”, he narrated.
Edward Marsha reiterated that local government election was usually the bedrock of any democracy, due to its closeness to the people, hence the need to allow for the wishes and aspiration of the people to thrive.
“If you deny people the right of choosing their leaders at the local government level, you deny them everything , hence PDP in Kaduna state will not accept this gross manipulation and distortion; for we will challenge it through the right channels “, he concluded.
He called for stakeholders in the state to come out and resit the planned manipulation by the APC, describing it as undemocratic and unpatriotic to the tenets of democracy.
Edward Marsha also urged the members of the Kaduna State House of Assembly, regardless of their political affiliation, to be bipartisan and stand for what is right for the benefit and progress of the state.
The State PDP Chairman, therefore, called for the impeachment and removal from office of all those who allegedly collaborated to change the law in favor of the All Progressives Congress in the upcoming state election.
Cov/Teddy Daniels
