A group of civil society organizations, CSOs has observed that ignorance of the provisions of the electoral law is largely responsible for the disputes and eventual boycott of the September 6 Local Government Councils election in Katsina state by some political parties.
The group, working under the aegis of Election Conflict Management Team (ECMT) and a coalition of CSOs in Katsina state made this known Friday in an interface with NGOs and media briefing leading to the September 6 elections in the 21 local government councils across the state.
The meeting was a culmination of a three days tour of the state by ECMT to assess the level of preparedness by the political parties, the electoral body and the voters. It was also a visit to evaluate the level of compliance with the provisions of the law regarding the election in the state.
A review of the Katsina State Electoral Law No. 13 of May 2002 passed during the tenure of former Governor of the state and late Nigeria President, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, the law clearly dealt with various issues regarding election into the local councils and other related matters in the state.
Specifically, Part V Section 14 (1) of the law under Procedure for Election covers date of election as follows: “Not later than 21 days before the date specified for holding of an election under this Law, the Commission shall publish a notice a) stating the date of election and b) appointing the place at which nomination papers are to be delivered.
However in the timetable and activities guideline for Local Government Councils Election 2014 released by the State Independent Electoral Commission (SIEC), Monday June 2 through Saturday August 2 was earlier set for the timeline. By this, Katsina SIEC had announced a 60-day period for the activities and election which was later extended to September 6 due to several complaints by the opposition parties, such as Action Congress of Nigeria (CAN) and People Democratic Movement (PDM).
Speaking to the group during a visit to the State Chairman of PDM, Alh. Yushau Armayau said one other area of contention that affected most aspirant in the build up to the election is the cost of obtaining Nomination Form KTSIEC006A, 006B and 007 which pegged the fees for Chairmanship at two hundred and fifty thousand naira, Vice Chairman at one hundred and fifty thousand naira, and fifty thousand naira for Councillorship at one hundred thousand naira.
The PDM Chairman argued that these fees are not only exorbitant, they are against the provision of the law which stipulates one hundred thousand for chairmanship and lower for vice and councilors.
The CSOs however blamed the SIEC for not complying with the provisions of the law by disseminating the information to all stakeholders as required. They said that due to no access to the law, it made their work difficult as they due not have a reference point. They therefore resolved to publish the Law among CSOs across the state to enable all stakeholders have access to the Law.
The interface which had in attendance Comrade Abdullahi Balange of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) in the state and Mr. Aaron Jacob, the Zonal Coordinator of Transition Monitoring Group (TMG) also features 25 other NGOs from across the state. The ECMT was represented by Larry Suraj of Civil Society Network Against Corruption (SNAC), Lagos, Abdu Yusuf of Rural Women Organization for Development, Sokoto and Mohammed Bougei Attah of NGO Network, Kaduna among others.
