The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Kaduna State has strongly condemned the alleged manipulation of the local government electoral law by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to favor themselves in the upcoming election.
Kaduna State Chairman of the party, Edward Marsha made the claims during a press conference at the Nigerian Union of Journalists, NUJ, Secretariat on Friday in Kaduna.
Edward Marsha said that the section of the local government electoral law that allows for chairmanship and councilorship results to be announced first at the polling units and ward collation centers were removed from the law without following due process.
“We shouted and raised a red flag for the local government election that is coming up on the 19th October this year where we noticed a deliberate attempt to maneuver the process that is meant to be free and fair as enshrined by the law.”
“The state chairperson of State Independent Electoral Commission , SIECOM, the state speaker of the house and the office of the attorney general of the state are working in tandem to change the already signed local government electoral law, he said.”
He lamented that any manipulation of the electoral law to serve certain interest will deny the people their legitimate rights to vote for people of their choice at the forth coming elections.
‘“The results after polls are to be announced first at the polling units by the presiding officer, where results of each party that participated will be announced and then polling units would assemble with their results at the ward collation centers, which the ward retuning officer will collate the results and announce the winners”.
“Furthermore, the retuning officer in charge of the local government will also collate results from all the wards and then declare the chairman and the chairperson that emerge victorious.”
“However, in this new law that we have before you, that was done without the awareness of the PDP state legislature, as the results will no longer be announced at the ward and local government collation centers, rather the chairperson of SIECOM would have sole right and responsibility to announce all results at the headquarters ,or she may authorize any person to announce the results at any designation area of her will, he narrated”.
Edward Marsha reiterated that the local government election is usually the bedrock of any democracy, due to its closeness to the people, hence the need to allow the wishes and aspiration of the people to thrive.
“If you deny people the right of choosing their leaders at the local government level,you deny them everything , hence PDP in Kaduna state will not accept this gross manipulation and distortion; for we will challenge it through the right channels, he concluded”.
He called for all stakeholders in the state to come out and resist the planned manipulation by the APC, describing it as undemocratic, unpatriotic and a violation of the tenets of democracy.
Edward Marsha also charged all Kaduna State House of assembly members inrespective of their political affiliation to be bipartisan and stand for what is right for the good and progress of the state.
The state PDP chairman therefore called for the impeachment and removal from office of all those that have allegedly worked together to change the law which was meant to favor the All Progressive Party in the state at the forthcoming local government election.
