3 months ago
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By Jethro Ibileke
The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC has said no fewer than 2,629,025 registered voters are expected to cast their ballots in the 21 September governorship election to decide the next governor of Edo state.
INEC’s National Commissioner supervising Edo, Delta, and Bayelsa States, Prof. Rhoda Gumas, disclosed this on Tuesday in Benin while presenting voters’ registers to the 17 participating parties.
The figure is slightly higher than the 2,501,021 registered voters who voted in the 2023 general election.
According to Prof. Gumas, Ikpoba/Okha Local Government Area has the highest number of registered voters with 400,495, followed by Oredo with 357,371 while Igueben Local Government Area has the least with 52,000 voters.
Meanwhile, the Commission has presented voters’ registers to the chairmen of the various participating parties.
There was however a mild drama when the Resident Electoral Commissioner, Mr. Anugbum Onuoha, refused to release the voters’ register to the factional state chairman of Labour Party (LP), Mrs. Elizabeth Ativie.
Citing the internal wrangling in LP, Onuorah declared that he will present the register to the other party chairmen present except for the representative of the party which has former President of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), Olumide Akpata, as its governorsip candidate in the election.
“The voters’ register will be given to representatives of all the parties present except for Labour Party. We’ll not give to the representative of Labour Party because of the leadership problem in the party at the state level. It an internal problem. We do not want to be involved. We will only give the register to the party’s candidate,” he said.
Accompanied by his running mate, Prince Asamah Kadiri and hordes of party supported, Mr. Olumide, later came after the close of ceremony to collect the voters’ register.
Speaking with journalists after the collection, the LP governorsip candidate conceded that there are problems bedeviling the party both at the state and national level, adding however that other parties also have court cases as regards their primaries.
He said: conflicts are bound to happen in any organization peopled by human beings. Court cases will not however allow me to speak on the issue. Labour Party has one governorsip candidate. It has one deputy governorship candidate. We will win the election.”
