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ODIEC Goes Ahead With LG Poll This Saturday Despite Criticism

Despite criticism and court cases aimed at withholding the local government election, the Ondo State Independent Electoral Commission (ODIEC) has announced it would go ahead with the conduct of the poll this Saturday.

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Gbenga Ige, Chairman of the Commission, who disclosed this on Friday to a SaharaReporters correspondent at his office in Akure, added that sensitive materials and other logistics needed for the poll are ready for distribution.

He stated that no fewer than seven thousand ad-hoc staffs that have already been trained would be deployed for Saturdays’ local government council poll to ensure the poll was rancor free. 

The ODIEC Chairman further told SaharaReporters that the commission would depend on the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) registered voters list used in the last general election in the State to accredit voters for the council election this Saturday.

He stressed that the Permanent Voters Card (PVC) would only be attainable at the polling units, noting that the commission will not use the Card Reader Machine (CRM) for the council poll. 

"For this election, we will be using the Permanent Voters Card and we are less concerned about the Card Reader Machine (CRM) since the names of eligible voters are in the INEC officials registered voter lists," Mr. Ige said. 

He said that the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC) security team composed of the officers of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), Army, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Customs, Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Immigration Services, and others would provide security for the Saturday election.

According to Mr. Ige, the commission was prepared to conduct a transparent local government election by giving the fourteen participating political parties a level playing field.

"This election will be free and fair and the commission is ready to carry everybody along no matter the political party that is participating in the election," Mr. Ige told SaharaReporters.

It was also gathered from the office of the ODIEC that fourteen political parties fielded candidates for the Saturday local government election, which will be held across the eighteen council areas of the State. 

Sources at the commission told our correspondent that thirty chairmanship candidates and over three hundred and twelve councillorship candidates from the fourteen political parties are contesting for the vacant seats in the two hundred and three political wards in the State.

Our correspondent reported that the participating political parties are the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Unity of Nigeria (UPN), the African Democratic Congress (ADC), the Peoples Democratic Movement (PDM), the Labour Party (LP), the Democratic Peoples Party (DPP), the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), the Democratic Peoples Congress (DPC), the Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN), and the National Conscience Party (NCP).

The sources further added that no fewer seven thousand ad hoc staffs, including Supervisory Officers, Returning Officers, Ward Collation Officers, Presiding Officers, and Poll Clerks, have been deployed to the three thousand and nine polling units of the State.

Already, the main opposition parties in the State, the All Progressives Congress (APC), the Social Democratic Party (SDP), the Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP) and the All Peoples Alliance (APA) have indicated their interest to boycott the poll this Saturday.

Political pundits in the State who have been speaking with SaharaReporters said the election would be a "mere selection process" rather than conducting a ballot poll due to the interest of the embattled Governor Olusegun Mimiko in the Saturday poll. 

"Conducting this Saturday local government election is just a waste of time because it's a mere selection process since the governor has interest in the poll ahead of the forthcoming governorship election,” a source told SaharaReporters.

SaharaReporters’ investigation revealed that tomorrow's council poll in the State might experience a low turnout of voters following the refusal of the State government to pay civil servants in its workforce their salaries and entitlements. 

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Elections