The Acting Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Ekiti State, Dr. Muslim Omoleke who also doubles as the Administrative Secretary (AS) of the Commission in Ekiti State has revealed that a total of 14 political parties will be contesting Saturday’s Senatorial and House of Representatives Elections in the State.
Dr. Muslim Omoleke gave this hint while fielding questions from pressmen in Ado Ekiti.
He expressed the readiness of the Commission in Ekiti State to conduct the Saturday polls for both the Presidential and National Assembly positions holding across the Country.
He equally assured voters that the smart card readers would record zero failure this time as against what was witnessed in past elections where INEC staff opted for incident forms for victims of failed card readers.
Omoleke went on to open up that only 14 out of the 73 existing political parties in the Country indicated interests for the elections in the State. He added that politicians would be disappointed on Saturday should they rely on strategy of vote-buying to win elections, saying the polling booths would be arranged in such a way that such electoral fraud would not be possible.
Stressing his plans, Omoleke said: “Only 14 parties indicated interest for the Senate and House of Representatives in Ekiti out of the 73 parties that showed interest in the forthcoming general elections beginning from the Presidential to the House of Assemblies. We want to assure Nigerians that we will be fair to all political parties. To us in INEC, no party is big or small, they are the same and it is with that spirit we are going to deal with them on the days of elections.
“Politicians won’t find it easy this time. We have mapped out our strategies and we are working closely with security agencies to make perfect arrangements of our polling booths in such a way that no one can know where and who voters actually voted for.
“Apart from vote-buying, politicians also resort to ballot snatching to win elections. This can no longer work because anywhere such incident is recorded will be canceled and election will be repeated there the second day. Perpetrators of such act have nothing to gain, because they will automatically lose such votes to cancellation and if they are caught during ballot snatching or identified by the security agencies, then they will be prosecuted and jailed accordingly”.
The INEC Acting REC and Administrative Secretary in Ekiti State, Dr. Muslim Omoleke was, however, silent on the names of the 14 political parties contesting the Senatorial and House of Representatives elections in the state.
Packaged by Emmanuel Adeniran
