The Edo State Independent Electoral Commission said on Friday that it had deployed 8,000 ad-hoc staff to conduct the Saturday local government election in the state.
Prof. Stanley Orobator, the Chairman of the commission, who disclosed this to newsmen in Benin, gave the assurance that the commission was ready for the election.
Orobator said: “We have trained about 8000 ad-hoc staff for the elections and the materials for the election will leave the commission as from 5:p.m. today.
“Security personnel are on ground to escort both the sensitive and non-sensitive materials to the various locations.”
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that 10 political parties have also been cleared by the commission to participate in the election.
They included: the All Progressives Congress (APC), Democratic Alternative (DA), Democratic Peoples Party (DPP), Green Party of Nigeria (GPN), Labour Party (LP) and National Conscience Party (NCP).
Others are: Progressive People Alliance (PPA), Acton Democratic Party (ADP), Social Democratic Party (SDP) and People for Democratic Change (PDC).
NAN reports that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) which is the main opposition party in the state is boycotting the election.
The party’s spokesperson in the state, Chris Nehikhare, stated: “we want to reiterate that PDP is not participating in the sham elections”.
He said that PDP did not field any candidate for any of the positions in the wards and local government areas.
According to Nehikhare the party is challenging an amendment to the rules guiding the conduct of the elections in court.
He said the party outlined its grievances regarding the composition of EDSIEC.
He also said the party was opposed to the “unconstitutional amendment” to the length of period of notice required to be given to political parties before elections were held.
Nehikhare said that the party also questioned what “the competence of the EDSIEC as the antecedent of its chairman stuck out like a sore thumb”.
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