By Dailytab24.
Imo State council elections have been allegedly held in hotels; the accusation was made by the main opposition party in the state.
The PDP chairman, who disclosed the situation of the election in Owerri while addressing newsmen, said no election was held in the state because APC thumbprinted all the ballot papers in different hotel rooms and no election was held.
Austine Nwachukwu decried what he called the “murder of democracy.” The PDP Chairman said he was highly disappointed with the blatant act of the APC in the state.
“We have today witnessed the murder of democracy. The purported local government elections in Imo State today, September 21, 2024, are nothing but a show of shame, an organised fraud, and an unprecedented rape of democracy.
We can boldly say that there was no election anywhere in the state today. As of 4 pm on a supposed election day, Imo people witnessed with grief the absence of sensitive and non-sensitive electoral materials at virtually all the polling units across the entire state, even as electoral officers were not sighted anywhere near voting centres.
Frustrated and disappointed, voters who had waited so long to cast their ballots to no avail retired to their respective homes. In a rather shocking development, the Imo State Independent Electoral Commission (ISIEC) instead delivered the sensitive electoral materials to APC leaders and cronies at various LGAs,” the PDP chairman detailed.
The Imo council election is one of the first elections to happen in the Southeast after the declaration made by the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court had ruled that the local government is an independent arm of the government and shall be responsible for its finances and projects.
The matter was between the governors and the federal government after many years of the governors insisting on taking over the local governments finances.
The state government was responsible for local government elections, but the Supreme Court ruling means INEC will henceforth be conducting the local government elections.
Since the ruling was made, there has not been any structure put in place for implementation, and that has directly affected the conduct of the council election.
