Fashola Expresses Cautious Optimism Over Polls

[TGD]

 LAGOS State governor, Babatunde Fashola, has described yesterday's National Assembly election as successful, calling on voters to come out in larger numbers during the remaining round of polls.

Fashola, who arrived at 10.15am, alongside his wife, Abimbola, for accreditation at his polling unit, Iponri Housing Estate/Eric Moore Ward, State Grammar School, Surulere Local Government Area, admitted that the electoral test run had been stormy.

He said: "My sense of it again is that this is what we have all asked for. We have all asked to participate; we have all asked to be given opportunity to choose our leaders. Now that the opportunity is in our hands, let us make use of it. Free and fair elections do not start and end with preparations by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) alone. It's a handshake, and the citizens must shake hands now with the system so that the fullest participation is achieved. So that if you are involved, you can put in those people who would be entrusted with the responsibility to look after all of us for the next four years."

By11:58am, Fashola, with his wife, returned to cast his vote, praising the turnout of voters.

In the April 2 botched election, 270 people were accredited in the polling unit. But yesterday saw an impressive 316 voters turning out for accreditation, out of 870 that originally registered in the unit.

On turnout, Fashola said that all over the world, there is no place where every registered voter comes out for election proper. He said some of the hitches have been brought to his knowledge.

"They are not unique to Nigeria; it's all over the world. In the last elections in the United Kingdom, certain people couldn't vote. In the last presidential elections in the USA, some people couldn't vote. It's never a 100 per cent exercise; it's a logistic operation. Sometimes, there may be drop offs here and there, but there's always room with each election. It's a sequence of free elections. There's always room to mop these things up."

He insisted that he would like to restrain himself from making general and sweeping statements on the conduct of yesterday's election, saying while it is very easy to engage in this method, however, in certain terms, the election was peaceful.

"We expect that we can build on that and use that peace to conduct the other elections. In that sense, each election would have its own unique consequences and decisions."



Source: Fashola Expresses Cautious Optimism Over Polls