The Chairman of the Ondo State Independent Electoral Commission, ODIEC, Dr Joseph Aremo in Akure on Monday defended the indefinite postponement of the scheduled local government election, attributing the action to the non compliance of political parties with the electoral act, rules and regulations of conducting the election.
ODIEC Chairman while lamenting that no political party submitted any candidate’s name, said the commission would review it’s activities and a new date will be communicated in due course.
Reacting to the decision, the State Chairman, Inter Party Advisory Council, IPAC, Prince Olaoluwa Adesanya admitted that registered political parties deliberately boycotted the electoral process due to what he described as the refusal of Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa to meet with the IPAC leadership on the local government election.
Adesanya noted that the state Governor had refused to meet with IPAC despite several letters written to him.
The political parties insisted that they would not participate in the conduct of the election until after meeting the governor to ascertain the level of readiness of the state government for the conduct of the council poll.
He said the party would want to have a meeting with the governor on the matter.
“They now know our reasons. We want to see Mr. Govenor. It is not that we don’t have trust in ODIEC. We know that they can perform credible election, but we want to see Mr Governor,” Adesanya maintained
However, the ODIEC Chairman, angrily described the action of the IPAC as sabotaging efforts of the commission in the conduct of the local government election slated for this year.
In its own reaction, the state chapter of the People’s Democratic Party said the ODIEC postponed the poll because the All Progressives Congress was no longer popular in the state.
The main opposition party also blasted ODIEC and the ruling APC for the indefinite postponement.
The state Publicity Secretary of the party, Mr Kennedy Peretei, said, ” We knew all along that ODIEC will not conduct the LG election because the APC is not on the ground.”
The development would be the second time that the ODIEC would be postponing the local government poll in the state.
The commission earlier fixed February for the election but shifted the date to July.
