With less than 48 hours to the Katsina State local government elections, the State Independent Electoral Commission has begun distributing sensitive election materials to the 34 local government areas.
Briefing journalists on the preparations for the election scheduled for Saturday, February 15, the commission’s Chairman, Alhaji Lawal Faskari, assured that the election materials would arrive at the polling units on time.
He noted that they had already recruited and trained 20,000 ad hoc staff who would oversee the exercise in the 6,652 polling units across the state.
Regarding the refusal of most opposition parties to participate in the exercise, with some expressing doubts about the electoral umpire’s ability to conduct credible elections, Faskari insisted that the election would be “free, fair, and credible.”
Our correspondent reports that only five political parties fielded candidates to contest in the chairman and councillorship elections, as opposed to the 2023 governorship and state House of Assembly elections which was contested by thirteen political parties.
Saturday’s election will be a contest between the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Accord Party, Booth Party, African Action Congress (AAC), and African Democratic Congress (ADC).
Some key opposition parties including the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) and Social Democratic Party (SDP) did not join the race while the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) pulled out of the race at the eleventh hour.
The state party secretary, Tijjani Kafinsoli, accused the electoral umpire of making the nomination forms unaffordable.
“The commission has fixed ₦3 million for Chairmanship candidates and ₦1 million for Councillorship candidates, there are 34 LGAs and 361 wards in the state, meaning the total cost of forms would be about ₦463 million”, he protested.
COV/Isma’il Adamu
