Barely 72 hours to the November 16 governorship election in Anambra State, the All Progressives Congress, APC, has raised alarm over alleged secret creation of 1,973 polling units for the election.
APC said that the creation of the extra polling units apart from the existing 4,608 units has brought the number of voting points to 6,581.
In a statement issued in Benin, yesterday, by the party’s Interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, APC said the alert became ‘’necessary because INEC has not educated voters on the extra polling units, a few days before the election-a development that could either disenfranchise many voters or play into the hands of those who are already perfecting their rigging’’ strategies.
APC further said its fears were further heightened by the fact that the extra polling units together account for over 800,000 votes.
According to Mohammed, ‘’INEC, apparently in other to facilitate the accreditation and voting process on Saturday, has created these extra polling units from those that have in excess of 500 voters.
‘’But in a situation where voters are not aware of this development, there is the risk that some dirty INEC officials could collude with unscrupulous and desperate politicians to move these extra units away from the location of the original ones for secret thumb-printing, thus disenfranchising over 800,000 voters and paving the way for the appropriation of such votes by vote thieves.’’
The party then implored INEC to urgently give the creation of the extra polling units the necessary publicity; alert voters to the fact that the extra units will be at the same location as the original ones; ensure the deployment of adequate officials to man the extra units on Saturday as well as ensure that enough voting materials were made available for them.
SOURCE :vanguard
No comments:
Post a Comment