ADC: Elections holding in only three states — INEC has no reason to fail

The African Democratic Congress (ADC) says the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has no reason to fail in Saturday’s governorship elections in Kogi, Imo and Bayelsa.

Speaking with NAN, George Ashiru, the Lagos state ADC chairman, said the electoral umpire must not fail if it has learnt anything from the mistakes of the previous elections.

“When you are conducting elections in 36 states, you can be giving excuses of having a lot of data, manpower, logistics and others to deal with,” he said.

“There is no reason for failure now that we just have three states. INEC has the resources it uses for 36 states now to focus on three states.

“We expect that this time around, technologies will not fail and security forces will be able to ensure that people, INEC staff and materials are protected to make votes count.”

He added that INEC and security agents must ensure that polling units are well manned security-wise, and ensure that people’s franchise were not disrupted by unruly politicians.

“We want INEC to conduct an election that will not make any contestant to go to the tribunal after polls,” he said.

“If INEC does its job well, every contestant will accept and admit the results as being clear and transparent.

“Once there is any form of failure in any of the key cardinal principles of transparency and security, then democracy will be considered tampered with.”

Speaking on the Kogi poll, Ashiru said Leke Abejide, the ADC governorship candidate, would bring transformational system of government and ensure people get value for their mandate.

“One of the advantages of a party like ours is that we don’t carry any baggage of misrule and misconduct in past governments and elections,” he said.

“We come with a fresh transformational approach to governance, doing things in the correct way, constitutionally.

“We will be carrying everyone along and making sure there is social provision and delivering economic values without disrupting the system.

“We are confident that the ADC candidate has the capability to deliver a prosperous Kogi anchored primarily on the welfare of the downtrodden.”