Edo LG poll fallout: Senator advocates for abolition of SIECs

[Mirror]

Following the furore generated over the outcome of the recently held re-run elections in Esan North Local Government Area of Edo State, a call has gone to the upcoming national conference to abolish and delete from the constitution the provision for State Independent Electoral Commissions, SIECs.

Senator Yisa Braimoh, who represented Edo North on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, from 2007 to 2011 in the National Assembly, made the call in Abuja yesterday in a statement, advocating for the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC, to be saddled with the responsibility of conducting local government elections across the country.

Braimoh was kicking against the alleged replacement of the PDP candidate in the re-run election, John Yakubu with Sam Eboh, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, by the state government and the Edo State Indepen-dent Electoral Commission, EDSIEC. Braimoh said that "the pattern of the conduct and results of local government elections nationwide in recent years and up to now make it imperative for the forthcoming National Conference to abolish SIECs and return the responsibility for council elections to INEC."

Saying that the action of the Edo State Government in the conduct and announcement of fictitious result for the chairmanship election in Esan North East Local Government was condemnable and underscored the magnitude of electoral manipulation and democratic flaws at that level of government, Braimoh expressed curiosity that the state government under Governor Adams Oshiomhole would commission a 30-minute live broadcast to accuse the state Commisof Police and Police personnel of electoral fraud in the conduct and announcement of results of Esan North East Local Government elections.

His words: "The entire contraption in Edo State is laughable and the brazen electoral thievery is condemnable.

This is the first time in the annals of election in Nigeria that the perceived winner of a local government election would commission a live television broadcast to justify perfidy through diversion of attention by throwing barbs at the Police."

He lamented that since 1999 to date, results of local government elections have been 100 per cent predictable in the direction of landslide victory for the party in power in the states, describing the development as a "fundamental flaw in our democratic experiment."