Political parties shun Ondo LG polls, force postponement

Less than two weeks before the scheduled local government election in the Ondo State, the state’s Independent Electoral Commission (ODIEC) has announced its postponement indefinitely.

The election, billed to hold in the 18 Local Governments and 33 Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) in the state, was earlier rescheduled to hold on 13 July.

Chairperson of ODIEC, Joseph Aremo, while addressing a stakeholders’ meeting in Akure on Monday, said the postponement became necessary following the failure of political parties to submit their nomination forms and engage in the electoral processes.

According to him, all guidelines for the election had earlier been issued as scheduled, but there was no response from the political parties.

“Ours is to conduct election that will usher in a democratic government at the local level,” he said.

“It’s unfortunate that no single party complied with the guidelines for the election. We are yet to receive the nomination of candidates, yet to verify and release it to the public for scrutiny,” he added.

He said the commission would go back to the drawing board and make its position known at a later date.

However, the Ondo State Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC) chairperson, Adesanya Olaoluwa, admitted that all the political parties had agreed not to engage in the process until a proper meeting was held with the governor of the state on developments affecting the local government administration.

He, however, commended the ODIEC chair for his commitment towards ensuring a free, fair and credible election.

“They now know our reasons. We want to see Mr Governor. It is not that we don’t have trust in ODIEC. We know they can conduct a credible election, but we want to see Mr Governor,” Mr Olaoluwa said.

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There had been unresolved issues on the sacking of local government caretaker committees, especially with litigation contesting the appointment of caretaker committees by the erstwhile Oluwarotimi Akeredolu-led administration.

Although the court had granted parties to the suit to seek an out-of-court settlement, conclusions are yet to be reached on the matter.

The court had also voided the creation of the 33 LCDAs created by the late Governor Akeredolu, even though the state government is dallying over appealing the judgement.