The Independent National Electoral Commission had fixed October 10, 2020 for the state’s governorship election.
Ahead of the Ondo State governorship election, leaders of opposition parties in the state have said that they would wrestle power from the All Progressives Congress.
The Independent National Electoral Commission had fixed October 10, 2020 for the state’s governorship election.
No fewer than 17 political parties have indicated interest to participate in the exercise where the APC and Peoples Democratic Party are viewed as the ‘frontliners’.
Biyi Poroye, Chairman of Mega Party of Nigeria, told SaharaReporters that some of the opposition parties were already coming together under 'Emerging Political Platform' to take back power from the APC during the poll.
He however, noted that there were plans to also collapse the platform into any of the parties in the state with good ideology after governorship primaries of parties.
On his part, Alex Adeniyi, Chairman of the African Action Congress in Ondo State, rejected the view that only the APC and the PDP were the party to beat in the governorship election.
Adeniyi said that the AAC would participate actively in the exercise, adding that the party has continued to be the third force with its following and would wrestle power from the APC in the state.
He said, "As a political party with great ideology, we are capitalising on the failures of the two most corrupt political parties (both APC and PDP) who had held sway in the state since the return of democracy in 1999.
"We intend to tell the residents of the state that we can always do away with these two known parties because they have all failed us and we don't need them anymore.
"We need a political party with ideology that would bring our dead industries back to life and where education would remain our best legacy and security of lives and properties will matter in governance.
"Since AAC is here, we are ready for the governorship poll and it is not going to be about APC and PDP alone as people are tired of the main parties because it’s now like a game of changing the cover of the same old bottle."
Chairman of Zenith Labour Party, Joseph Akinlaja, while speaking on the issue, said the party had picked its candidate to show readiness for the governorship election.
He explained that the ZLP do not view the APC and PDP as the main contenders in the election, noting that the outcome of the election would shock the two political parties.
In his own reaction, Mr Oladele Olugbemi Ogunbameru, Acting Chairman of Social Democratic Party, said the party was not interested in discussing other political parties participating in the election.
He noted that the SDP was being strategic ahead of the election as more aspirants were reaching out to contest on its platform.
Other political parties expected to field candidates in the election include Action Alliance, African Democratic Congress, Young Progressives Party, Labour Party, among others.