- May announce election timetable this week as pressure mounts
BY AHMED TUKUR LAFIA – Barring any last minute modifications, the Nasarawa State Independent Electoral Commission (NASIEC) is set announce its timetable for conducting local government elections in the state.
Our competent source said the move is to enable political parties and stakeholders prepare adequately for the exercise that will usher in freshly elected leaders at the grassroots.
The source hinted that major political stakeholders met on Friday, April 9, 2021 and resolved that the local government election should hold before the present leadership’s tenure expires on May 27, 2021.
This is as some stakeholders have expressed worries that the continued delay in releasing poll’s timetable by NASIEC is not healthy for political developments in the All Progressives Congress (APC)-governed state.
Criticising the delay, a Lafia-based constitutional lawyer, Barrister Abdullahi Ubndoma cautioned that failure to conduct election within the stipulated time will create needless political tension in the state.
Barrister Ubndoma, who cited series of Supreme Court judgments that have declared as illegal Caretaker Committees at the local government level, said; “It will be unfortunate if up to this time we have not had any development to the preparations or readiness by the electoral empire of what they have in place for the elections”.
Also, the Nasarawa State Caretaker Chairman of APC, John Mamman, in throwing his weight behind conducting local government poll May 27, said the ruling is fully ready and on ground anytime NASIEC finally unveils the election’s time table.
Mamman said the APC is comfortable and has put all machinery and strategies in place to ensure its candidates emerge victorious at the polls
Speaking on condition of anonymity, inside sources confirmed to Forefront that APC chieftains; members of the State Assembly; representatives of local government chairmen; and officials of Ministry of local government and chieftaincy affairs among others attended the stakeholders’ meeting.
It was also gathered that some APC bigwigs in the state; some principal officers of the Nasarawa State House of Assembly and key stakeholders were mandated to engage themselves in fashioning out a workable and acceptable timetable within the time frame left for the exercise.
Also tasked on ensuring that modalities are in place for conducting a hitch-free and successful exercise, our sources said discussions on the issues at stake are likely to be finalised on Monday, April 12, 2021.
Already on the table for consideration are two options that include holding primary elections before the present leadership’s tenure expires and conducting the election in June or conducting both the primary and secondary elections within the next six weeks.
Though the State electoral body has refused to make official comments on the local government for now, it is believed that preparations are in top gear and the body is only waiting for the right signals to make formal pronouncements on the exercise.
