INEC May Shift Bayelsa Guber Polls …Over MPPP Candidate’s Death …ACN Not Prepared For Elections –Scribe

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) may postpone the Bayelsa governorship election fixed for February 11, 2012 over the death of the Mega Progressive Peoples Party (MPPP) candidate, Mr. Oduduogwu Ebakumotuebi.

The candidate died at the Federal Medical Centre, Yenagoa on January 23 at the age of 56.

The party has, therefore, asked INEC to take note of Section 36 (1) of the Electoral Act which states, “If after the time of delivery of nomination paper and the commencement of poll, a nominated candidate dies, the Chief Electoral Commissioner shall being satisfied of the fact of death, countermand the poll in which the deceased candidate was to participate and the commission shall appoint some other convenient date for the election within 14 days.”

Meanwhile, the  Democratic People’s Alliance (DPA) said yesterday in Abuja that it had prepared well for the forthcoming governorship election in Bayelsa.

The party’s National Secretary, Chief Sam Onimisi, who  made this known said the national secretariat of the party was liaising with the state chapter to ensure victory for the party at the poll.

According to him, the major preparations were being done at the state level, while the national headquarters of the party would provide logistics, strategies and guidelines based on the party’s manifesto.

“Honestly, the preparations are being done at the state level, only that we are supporting them with what we have in terms of finance and logistics.

“Because we want to make an impact in such a way that the people of Bayelsa will know that there is government in place,’’ he said.

The DPA scribe said if the party won the poll, it would focus on policies that centered on human development, especially job creation.

“ The DPA, if elected, would focus on areas of the economy that are more beneficial to Bayelsans because Bayelsa is a riverine state.

“ It is more endowed with aquatic potentials and it is an area where agricultural activities are primary sources of income and if properly harnessed, will boost the economy of that state.

Onimisi, however, said that the party would not field candidates in the Adamawa and Cross River governorship elections.

But he said the party had directed its chapters in the affected states to enter into alliance with any party that had similar principles with it, for the polls.

In a related development, the National Secretary of  the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Sen. Lawal Shuaibu, says the party is not prepared for the February governorship elections in four states of the federation.

Shuaibu who said this in Abuja yesterday, noted that the party alongside other political parties would not be able to participate in all the four elections in one month because the time-table released by the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC was “too-tight”.

Our correspondent reports that the timetable for the governorship elections in the four states released by INEC recently, indicated that the Adamawa election will hold on February 4, Bayelsa on February11, Sokoto on February 18, while that of Cross River will hold on February 25.

The ACN scribe said that the compactness of the timetable would not give the parties enough time to file-in data and submit to INEC in time.

Shuaibu complained that INEC wanted to achieve within a month what used to take five months to complete.

He said that going by INEC’s timetable, there would not be enough time for candidates to hold far-reaching campaigns.

According to him, the party had been able to prepare for only the Adamawa election.

He said that INEC should have consulted all the stakeholders in the elections before taking a decision on the timing for the elections.

“Under normal circumstances, INEC was supposed to call political parties for meetings and that has been the tradition.

“But on this issue, we don’t know what informed their decision to take that type of unilateral decision without consulting the stakeholders.

“What happened to the rest of the elections? Why should they go and hold meetings and then announce that they have dates? No party is ready.’’

The party scribe, however, called on INEC to make out time to meet and discuss with major political party stakeholders to give room for ideas.

“The best way out is for INEC to call political parties because the main stakeholders are political parties. Let them sit down and discuss.

“Maybe the political parties have their own ideas. INEC cannot claim to enjoy monopoly of ideas particularly with regards to elections.’’