Alleged Breach Of Electoral Guidelines: Political Parties To Boycott Council Poll

..IPAC Accuse ISIEC Of  Being Bias

Political parties in Imo State under the aegis of Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC), Imo State, have threatened to byccot the scheduled Saturday Local Government Elections in Imo State.

Arising from a meeting involving about 15 political parties parties in the state held in Owerri on Tuesday, had warned Imo State Independent Electoral Commission (ISIEC) to stop playing to the gallery and do the right thing by following the guidelines as enshrined in the Electoral Act for the conduct of Council Elections.

IPAC rather called for the postpoment of the Saturday LG Elections to enable ISIEC fix itself in order to avoid sham elections.

During a media conference, Imo State Chairman of IPAC, Ichie Levi Ekeh, stated that the political parties are not satisfied with ISIEC for not properly following the elections guidelines, an anomaly he said undermines democratic tenets and rule of law.

"We are not happy with how ISIEC is going about the LG Polls. Recent trends of events have shown that the whole exercise is a charade in the sense that the elections guidelines have not been followed at all.

"Before now, ISIEC had promised that Forms would be issued to candidates where their details will be obtained and validation exercise taken place 20 days before the elections, but it is very shameful that ISIEC did not keep to the guidelines, an intentional act that demonstrates rigging and irregularities in the Saturday elections.

"IPAC is law-abiding and hence will not want to be part of this impunity being displayed by ISIEC. We want things to be done rightly. ISIEC should sit up and do what is right if it wants us to be part of the LG Elections", Ekeh maintained.

Observing that till now Adhoc Staff for the elections have not been listed, a situation Ekeh described as aberration, cautioning ISIEC for taken huge money from candidates for Validation Forms, wondering why ISIEC is not dealing directly with political parties.