March 1, 2018
The Chairman,
Oyo State Independent Electoral
Commission, OYSIEC,
Secretariat Road,
Ibadan, Oyo State
Dear Sir
LETTER
OF OBSERVATION AND SUGGESTION OVER ELECTION TIMETABLE AND DELINEATION OF WARDS/
LGA/LCDA
We of the Socialist Party of
Nigeria, SPN, Oyo State Chapter write to officially bring to the notice of your
esteemed office our observation and concern over the election time table and a
related document titled “wards delineation” which we received
from the Oyo State Independent Electoral Commission, OYSIEC on Wednesday,
February 22, 2018.
It will be recalled that state
leadership of SPN and some OYSIEC commissioners had a meeting
on Wednesday, February 21st, 2018. This was with a view of
resolving all of the areas of conflicts between the party and commission, that
formed the background to the peaceful protest organised by SPN
members to the OYSIEC office on Monday, February 19, 2018 against perceived
exclusion of the party by the OYSIEC from the preparatory process for the
election into 33 Local Government Area, LGAs and 35 local council development
areas LCDA scheduled to hold on May 12, 2018.
To us in SPN, the meeting was no
doubt a success, in the sense that it provided the party and commission an
avenue to agree on definite channel of communication the absence of
which was largely responsible for earlier conflict between the party and
the commission. The meeting also offered the leadership of SPN an
opportunity to receive on behalf of the party the official copy of the
timetable for the scheduled LGA/LCDA election as well as a related document
titled the “Delineation of Wards.”
However, having gone through these
documents, we found out some grey areas that deserve an urgent and immediate
attention of the commission; otherwise the commission will be faced with the
risk of conducting election that will be far from being credible, free and
fair!
According to the election timetable,
the deadline for the collection and submission of personal data form for
candidates by political parties is slated for Saturday February 24, 2018 and
Sunday, February 25, 2018 respectively. To us in SPN, this aspect gives room
for a doubt over the reliability of this timetable to guild us through the
electioneering process due to its inconsistency with the prevailing objective
realities on ground. As of Tuesday, February 27, 2018, virtually all political
parties in the state with high chances to participate in the scheduled LGA
election are yet to conduct their respective primary elections which was scheduled
in the same timetable to be completed between Monday, 5th and
Wednesday 23 February, 2018. Not even the ruling APC, which recently
made a public announcement over its decision to postpone the date to conduct it
primary elections indefinitely.
This therefore, implies that as
things stand today, none of the political parties in the state can be said to
have complied with the aspect of the timetable that concern both the
collection and submission of the personal data form for candidates by political
parties. This therefore underscores the position of our party that unless
representatives of political parties are brought together to work out an
election timetable that will be acceptable to all, the chances for the
scheduled elections to be free, fair and credible will be so slim!
The
continuous failure of OYSIEC to comprehensively delineate wards in the LGA and
LCDA is quite obvious in the documented titled delineation of wards which was
handed over to us officially by the commission. This document is so abstract in
the sense that it only shows the number of wards in each of the LGAs and LCDAs
without any description of the specific areas and boundaries of each ward.
Except we have a detailed delineation, it will be difficult for candidates in
the Election to understand the boundaries when canvassing for the electable
positions they are interested to contest for.
This
is why we of the Socialist Party of Nigeria strongly feel that issues around
the delineation of wards and local government should have been first and
foremost sorted out even before the release of any timetable for the election
itself. SPN is of the opinion that the release of the time table while still
battling with issues around delineation of wards is like putting the "cart
before the horse"!
Going by this background, it is
obvious that the foundation for the preparation for the long awaited local
government election is far from being capable to usher in an election that will
be credible. As much as SPN is in agreement that May 12 slated for the LG poll
should be sacrosanct, we hereby urge OYSIEC to declare the existing election
timetable null and void while also reiterate that OYSIEC should urgently
convene a fresh meeting of all the existing political parties in the state to
arrive at a progressive way out of this situation capable of undermining the
competence of OYSEIC to conduct a credible, free and fair Local government
election. This is with a view to create an avenue for a discussion and debate
over all of the issues around the election
towards arriving at an electoral time table that will
enjoy the input and consent of all political parties in the state. Lastly,
OYOSIEC must ensure that all issues around the delineation of wards are
resolved before a fresh election timetable is released
Again, except the OYSIEC conducts
the proposed local government elections in Oyo State in this kind of democratic
manner, the planned elections across LGA and LCDA in the state end up being
a farce!
SPN REQUESTS:
(1) OYSIEC should openly declare the
existing election time table null and void
(2) OYSIEC should convene a fresh
meeting of all the existing political parties in the state towards arriving at
a fresh election time table
(3) OYSIEC must resolve all issues
around the delineation of wards before a new election time table is released
Conclusively, the SPN will be glad
if all of these critical areas pointed out are addressed and attended to!
Yours sincerely,
Abiodun Bamigboye (Abbey
Trotsky)
(08033914091)
Secretary, SPN, Oyo State Chapter
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