By Bridget Ikyado
Dr Legend Asuelime, Director-General of EDO-APC Diaspora Council, has described Saturday’s Local Government Election in Edo as a sham.
Asuelime said in a statement made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday in Abuja, that the election fell short of all indices of a free and fair poll.
He added that the conduct of the election showed that Gov. Godwin Obaseki and the election commission had no regard for the rule of law and democracy, as well as the people.
“We the leaders of EDO-APC Diaspora Council, hereby join our party leaders in the state to reject and condemn in its entirety this charade of a supposed democratic process,” he added.
According to him, the state government should have simply appointed caretaker committees for the councils, instead of wasting public resources in the name of election.
“It’s certainly a disgrace and impudence to channel a huge amount of funds to the Edo State Independent Electoral Commission for the purpose of an election and then do not provide the needed logistics or ambience for the conduct thereof.”
He said that the election started late, and “when ballot materials eventually arrived in the late afternoon, there were no result sheets”.
This, he said, indicated that which ever party the people chose “will count for nothing”.
“What we witnessed was a sham that needs not have a place in our nascent democracy,” he added.
Asuelime urged the electorate to be ready to vote out the PDP during the 2024 governorship election in the state.
He said that the APC would work to reclaim the state in a free and fair election in 2014.
“A clean victory is what we hope for because it is more enjoyable knowing that it comes with legitimacy,” he added.
NAN reports that the Edo Independent Electoral Commission declared candidates of the ruling PDP winners of the chairmanship election in all the 18 local government areas in the state.(NAN)
