Ahead of the forthcoming Edo Governorship election, the opposition PDP Reform Group has raised already high temperatures by pointing at plans to introduce compromised ballot papers to rig the poll in favour of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
Speaking in Abuja on Wednesday, convener of the Group, Mr Ariyo-Dare Atoye, alleged the complicity of the Edo State chapter of the APC and the electoral umpire, INEC, in the scheme to derail the polls, Vanguard reports.
According to Atoye, it was a “despicable plot to subvert the will of the people through criminal manipulation of the ballot papers, which the electoral body plans to deploy for the election.”
“We have just received credible information from the grapevine that the INEC has been fully compromised by the APC and the Edo State government in their desperate bid to rig the September 28, 2016, governorship election.
“Their modus operandi is to use special ballot papers that will make the spot of the PDP where voters are to thumbprint slippery and difficult to absorb ink, with the possibility of the ink staining beyond the mark line to void the PDP votes.”
Meanwhile, the PDP is reportedly considering a fresh zoning formula following the ongoing peace meetings between its two factions.
After the meeting of the National Caretaker Committee of Senator Ahmed Makarfi and the factional leader Senator Ali Modu Sheriff in Abuja, it’s been revealed that both camps had started consulting among their supporters on how to come up with a workable agreement that would be acceptable to the two factions.
During the last botched national convention, the party had zoned the office of the national chairman to the South-West, with the office of the national vice-chairman going to the North and the South respectively.
A member of the Sheriff faction, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the former Borno governor might want to preside over the proposed national convention and also appoint the chairman of the convention committee and majority of its members.
“The zoning will have to be looked into. We can’t fight and at the end of the day we won’t get offices for our gallant members. Then, we will also look at the composition of the national convention committee. We must produce the chairman and some members of the convention committee,” he said.
0 comments:
Post a Comment