Given the enormous challenge of the Imo State Independent Electoral Commission (ISIEC) in conducting free, fair, credible and masse participatory Local Government elections scheduled to hold coming December, the distractions of amorphous ISIEC Wards among others have put the December projection in serious doubt.
Chairman, Imo State Independent Electoral Commission, Barr. Julius Onyenucheya made the disclosure at the Imo International Cargo Airport, Owerri during interaction with Airport correspondents.
According to him, the present ISIEC leadership inherited a huge burden of policy inconsistencies following from past administrations in the state, hence the compelling need for the present ISIEC to right the wrongs of past years, properly delineate the electoral wards and set the pace in conducting a flawless LG elections. In that drive, the essential pre-occupation of the Commission is to undertake effective delineation of wards in the state which is ongoing currently and it is expected to be rounded-off in the next few weeks, the ISIEC boss declared.
Barr, Onyenucheya disclosed that in 2010, the government in power conducted Local Government elections using 315 Wards while the immediate past administration created 418 ISIEC Wards. It is because of the amorphous Wards created across the Local Government areas of the state, the present ISIEC management, in the interest of entrenching good democratic practice at the grassroots, considered it expedient to properly define the ISIEC Wards in the first instance.
The legal luminary explained that thereafter, the Commission will embark on massive sensitization, enlightenment, mobilization of the voters to overcome voter apathy, which characterized previous Local Government elections in the state.
The Rebuild Imo agenda of the present administration and ISIEC worried by the amorphous creations, HE SAID had to commend the Imo State House of Assembly for repealing the earlier back-up law. He expressed government’s commitment to saniitize the entire Imo electoral system by sanitizing the Wards and all facets of the present administrative structure to make governance people-participatory to change voter apathy using the coming Local Government elections as a litmus test.
Lamenting the drawback of the voter apathy in the state, he observed that “Mbaitoli Local Government Area is the second largest voting population in Nigeria. Mbaitoli registered 144,000 voters but only 110,000 voters had their voter cards released in the 2019 general elections. Mbaitoli did not vote more than 40,000 because of voter apathy hence the need and urgency to find out why it is so for the state and especially to chart a new way forward for a better democratized elections with people in very active participation”, he stated.
In his encouraging words to Imolites, Barr.Onyenucheya urged Imolites to be patient and come along the path of sanity putting the right parameters in place to ensure that the coming Local Government election is conducted free, fair credible and for it to be reckoned as the first of its kind in the state.
“People are looking at December. What is sacrosanct is a free, fair and credible elections. Part of achieving that is getting the greater majority of Imolites to participate.
“We have pre-election issues. After that, we have post election activities”, he noted.
According to him, one step after another, ISIEC will do the people of the state proud, he concluded.
