– Group Alleges, Commission Run By Gov’s Appointees
– Envisages Declaration Of already Prepared Results
A cross section of Imolites,from different political divide particularly candidates of other political parties that intend to contest the September, 21, Local Government election in the State, have described the Imo State Independent Electoral Commission ISIEC, as an appendage of the state government.
They pointed out that the Commission’s body language shows that it is not prepared to conduct free, fair and credible election but is more interested in extorting money from the candidates even when it knows that there will be no level playing ground for the contestants. They also noted with dismay that the electoral body through Independent in name, is run by the Governor’s appointees who will definitely align with his whims and caprices.
Some of them who spoke on the condition of anonymity for obvious reasons, said, “just last Tuesday, less than one week to the election, all Chairmanship candidates were mandated to pay the sum of one hundred thousand naira each for logistics, while the Counsellorship candidates paid fifty thousand naira each, after paying #3million and #1million respectively for the Nomination and Expression of Interest forms. This amount does not include different sums of money paid as party fees and the one spent on public relations, mobilization and reaching out to party leaders who always see election periods as their time to cash out at the expense of candidates.
They condemned the recent development as a deliberate ploy by ISIEC to further extort the drained financially candidates who are already.
They also alleged that the list of successful All Progressive Congress APC candidates that has been circulation for some time now, has been sent to ISIEC for endorsement and declaration as the winners of the forthcoming Local Government election in the State.
On this note, “Imolites For Good Governance”, a human rights advocacy group that champions transparency in governance, in a release issued by its Coordinator, Election Monitoring, Comrade Henry Unachukwu, called on the Governor, Senator Hope Uzodinma to use the forthcoming Local government election in the state to redeem his image as regards alleged lack of transparency in electoral matter, which, he said, does not portray him in good light.
