INEC to hold Ekiti Assembly supplementary poll March 23

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Sunday said that it had fixed the only constituency poll for the Ekiti State House of Assembly that was not concluded on March 9 to March 23.

The election in Ekiti East Constituency 1 had been declared inconclusive by the INEC, following reported cases of violence and other factors.

INEC’s Administrative Secretary in the state, Dr Muslim Omoleke, who also doubles as the Commission’s Acting Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in the state announced the new date in Ado Ekiti.

He asked those political parties that would be participating in the supplementary election to be getting ready.

He assured the parties that the commission would not deviate from the tradition of neutrality and fairness in the forthcoming supplementary election.

He said that the election would hold in five polling units in the constituency area, in line with the directive from the Chairman of INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu.

NAN reports that the election of Ekiti East Constituency 1 was suspended by INEC on March 9, when the house of assembly and governorship elections were being held across the country.

The INEC official had declared the results in the other 25 constituencies which were in favour of the ruling APC.

Omoleke said that INEC would meet with the security agencies during the week and brief them on the need to be well prepared for the conduct of the supplementary election.

He explained that the commission decided to suspend elections in the polling units, thereby making the outcome inconclusive, in line with its promise to be neutral and be fair to all contenders in any election.

“We are prepared for the election and we will not deviate from the practice of fairness and neutrality to all political parties.

“We will meet the security agencies this week and brief them on how the conduct will look like, so they can plan their own strategies on how to deliver a free, fair and credible election.

“We have already received materials from the headquarters and they are being kept in the Central Bank of Nigeria, the materials are under safe custody.

“We want to assure voters that we will not let them down. Let them come out massively and vote and we assure them that their votes will count.

“INEC did not disappoint in the conduct of the presidential, the state and national assembly elections in Ekiti, this also will not be an exemption,” Omoleke said.

NAN