Akwa Ibom State Independent Electoral Commission has released its final candidates list for 5 October Local Government elections with the All Progressives Congress not listed for three LGs chairmanship seats.
While the electoral body cleared 12 political parties for the forthcoming elections, only ruling People Democratic Party is fielding candidates for all available seats across the 31 LGAs with lead opposition party, the APC and others accredited failing to make the list in some quarters.
The list signed by AKISIEC Chairman, Aniedi Ikoiwak, showed that the APC has no Chairmanship and Vice Chairmanship candidates for Etinah, Itu and Nsit Ubuom LGAs while at Udung Uko, the party has no candidate for 10 available councilors seat to be contested.
With the other participating parties showing less presence on the candidates list than even the APC, the development has given clear advantage to the ruling PDP before voters will go out to vote come 5 October.
Reacting to the situation, APC chieftain in the state, Apostle Ekwere Udoh Nedd, accused AKISIEC of deterring opposition candidates from contesting the polls by declaring high participation cost and short deadlines for submission.
Ekwerre also chided APC Akwa Ibom leaders for not providing support for party members who aspired to contest LG polls but were denied the opportunity due to lack of fund to meet up AKISIEC requirements even after winning their party tickets to contest.
Nedd, former state Deputy Chairman, defunct ANPP, said, “I saw it coming and raised the alarm, but APC leaders in the state were unfeeling about the plight of our aspirants. The umpire deliberately made the requirement stringent to deny the opposition fair participation.
“And they did so in such short notice. In their so revised guidelines, political parties were to obtain AKISIEC FORMS LGE FORMS 001 and 002 for male chairmanship candidates at N500,000 while female candidates had preferential N250,000.
“For councilorship candidates, male candidates were required to purchase the forms for N250,000 against a 50% reduction for female aspirants who obtained same forms for N125,000 expectedly between 8 and 12 July 2024.
“The guidelines further stipulated the forms be completed and returned by participating political parties not later than 6 August with proof of tax receipts or Tax Clearance Certificate showing evidence of tax payment as and when due for the past three years before the date of the election.
“A situation where after going through purchase of forms and formalities with your party and all that and now being asked to buy AKISIEC forms again at such exorbitant cost with proof of tax clearance is unfair and giving one party undue advantage.
“You can see from the list, many aspirants having won their party tickets could not be listed in AKISIEC’s final candidates list for chairmanship and councilorship seats as cost of the forms was too high and the period for purchase and submission too short.”
Assessing the impact on the APC preparedness for the election, Ekwerre said, “The party elders are really not helpful. If most of these candidates don’t have enough financial muscle, the leaders of the party should be thinking towards how do we support these people to boost the morale of our party.
“We should have taken count, evaluating how many candidates have been able to purchase and complete these forms and support those lagging. Let me say this, without these candidates contesting and grabbing seats in this grassroots elections, the party will not exist.”
