Bayelsa seeks postponement of gubernatorial elections
By Punarimam Fehintola
The Bayelsa state government is seeking postponement for the 2nd November gubernatorial elections as scheduled by the independent National Electoral commission INEC earlier in April.
Governor of Bayelsa state Seriake Dickson led a delegation from the state to appeal to INEC to consider their earlier request as stated in a letter sent to the commission and fix another date other than 2nd November.
The governor who was represented by his deputy rear Admiral Gboribiogha John Jonah said it is important to shift the gubernatorial elections due to the annual thanks giving ceremony that usually falls on the 2nd November of every year.
“we are appealing to INEC to reconsider the date fixed for the governorship elections which may affect turn out of the election”. Any other date that will not clash with this Thanksgiving is welcome”.
In response, the INEC chairman professor Mahmood Yakubu said letter from Bayelsa state has been received and latest by Friday 17th May 2019 INEC will make a decision regarding their request.
“ A few weeks ago on 9thApril 2019, we released the timetable and schedule of activities for the Bayelsa and Kogi Governorship elections. The Commission fixed Saturday 2ndNovember 2019 for the elections in the two States. Shortly after the release of the timetable, we received a letter from Bayelsa State Government drawing the Commission’s attention that the 2ndof November each year has been designated as Thanksgiving Day in Bayelsa State and declared work-free by an Act of the State Assembly. The State Government has appealed to the Commission to reconsider the date for this reason”.
The INEC chairman further stated that prosecution of electoral offenders will commence soon. “Arising from the arrests made by the security agencies in the 2019 general elections, the Commission will soon commence the prosecution of offenders whose case files have been prepared by the Nigeria Police”
Mahmood also appealed for a peaceful conduct of primaries by political parties “May I also appeal to all political parties to ensure the conduct of transparent, credible and rancour-free primaries for the nomination of candidates. From the 2019 general elections, we have seen how acrimonious party primaries have been, resulting in numerous litigations and making our preparations for elections difficult. We are still grappling with issues arising from the conduct of party primaries. Pre-election litigations through the regular courts (the High Courts, Courts of Appeal and the Supreme Court) have resulted in a number of judgements in favour of petitioners. So far, primary elections conducted by political parties in 22 constituencies across the Federation have been upturned by the regular Courts of Law on account of improper party primaries”.
