Cross River: Fears Grip Parties Over Councils’ Poll

BY UBON EKANEM, CALABAR -Amidst mounting fears that only four political parties may qualify to participate in the forthcoming Local Government Elections in Cross River State, there are strong indications the June 18, 2017 polls date announced by the State Independent Electoral Commission (CROSIEC) is suspect.
This is against the backdrop of scathing insinuations that political manipulations by the Governor Ben Ayade-led Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) administration have taken the centre stage in the State political space.
Insiders told Forefront that aside from CROSIEC expressing disappointment with the way and manner some so-called political parties operate in the state without functional offices or State Secretariats, the ruling PDP’s body language seems to support assumptions that the June date may well be a charade being carefully planned by the government.
“CROSIEC’s concerns stem from the fact that most of the parties do not have elected executives in place to man their affairs and the Councils’ elections would be used to teach them a big lesson. However, most worrisome is conjectures within government circles that PDP’s seeming lack of urgency to kick-start its preparations for the polls is giving political actors and watchers sleepless nights”, one insider said.
But notwithstanding these reservations, CROSIEC has fired a warning shot for all parties to sit up and register their presence with the Commission or forget about participating in the June 18 polls. Forefront reliably learnt that only four political parties have so far satisfied the procedures and guidelines for participation in the elections. According to the CROSIEC chairman, Dr. Mike Ushie, the foursome are All Progressive Congress (APC), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Labour Party (LP) and All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA).
Dr Ushie insisted that only political parties properly registered with INEC and CROSIEC would be allowed to participate in the elections, adding that arrangements are already in top gear to ensure a-one man, one vote during the elections with the Commission not ready to condone criminal acts of ballot box snatching, over voting and violence.
He said part of measures to stamp out violence and criminality during the elections informed the decision that Chairmanship aspirants would pay a refundable fee of N200,000 each while councillorship aspirant would deposit N100,000 Naira each as commitment to ensure a violent free elections in the state.
If the arrangement scales through without any legal challenge as being contemplated by some political parties, then, CROSIEC is expected to rake in over NI billion from these charges, as well as sales of nomination forms.