Delta Re-Run: Uduaghan, 13 Others Test Popularity, ‘Morrow

The 14 candidates released by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the governorship re-run election in Delta State will tomorrow test their popularity as the people of the state vote for candidate of their choice.

    Among those to participate in the re-run election are the ousted Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Great Ogboru of Democratic Peoples Party (DPP) and Chief Ovie Omo-Agege who will fly the flag of Republican Party of Nigeria (RPN).

Others are Veronica Musa of All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), chief Ngozi Agbogbo of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) and Peter Oghenevwogaga of the Accord Party (AP) among others.

Meanwhile, the INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in the state Mr. Gabriel Adah said that about 1.5 million registered voters in Delta State are expected to vote in tomorrow re-run election.

He disclosed the figure at an interactive session with newsmen on Saturday in Asaba.

Adah said the voters were expected to cast their votes at any of the 3, 625 polling units in the state where they were registered in 2007.

For the purposes of transparency the INEC guidelines for the 2011 general elections would be used in the rerun election, the commissioner said.

He said the election would last for six hours, with accreditation of voters taking place between 9 a.m. and noon.

Voting would hold between 12 noon and 3 p.m., he said, adding that only accredited registered voters would be allowed to vote.

He further said that after accreditation, the number of persons accredited would be counted by all the stakeholders, and that the exercise would be repeated after voting.

He said the number of voters must correspond with the number of those accredited as the process would also be repeated at the collation centres.

The REC said that only registered voters with either the temporary or permanent voter’s cards would be eligible to vote.

He said that to further ensure transparency, party agents would be invited to monitor the distribution of materials, adding that ballot boxes with serial numbers would be used.

He, however, said that the serial numbers for the ballot boxes would not be revealed until the voting day.

“ Like you all know, this rerun is a litmus test for INEC and we cannot afford to fail.

“ We are bent on conducting free, fair and credible re-run election,’’ he said.

He warned that any act of thuggery would be investigated and the culprits would be prosecuted, adding that materials would be deplored to riverine communities a day before the rerun.