….WONDERS IF OGSIEC IS TRULY INDEPENDENT
Action Alliance has expressed worries over the way and manner the Ogun State Independent Electoral Commission (OGSIEC) is tampering with the electoral Guidelines and Time Table for the conduct of local government election in the state.
In a release signed by Prince Olumayowa Dawodu, Ag. Publicity Secretary, Action Alliance wondered whether credible and fair election could be conducted under this situation, when the commission kept on changing the guidelines and timetable to suit a particular party.
According to him, “Our Party, Action Alliance (AA) is getting disturbed on the inability of the Ogun State Independent Electoral Commission (OGSIEC) to follow the Guidelines and Time Table released by the Commission”./
It will be recalled that by the initial Time Table released by the Commission, Party Primaries were supposed to be concluded by 27th May, 2021 but had to be shifted to 3rd June, 2021 due to what the Commission said was as a result of appeal from some Political Parties. It was an open secret that the ruling Party, APC had not concluded its Selection/Primaries as at 26th May, 2021, hence the postponement.
“We are no doubt at the verge of another adjustment to the (adjusted) Time Table. That APC had been riddled with crisis after their Selections/Primaries is an obvious fact. The media in the past days has been reporting about protests by members who were shortchanged in the exercise. As a result of this, OGSIEC had not been able to release the list of screened and cleared Candidates to the Political Parties”, he stated.
By the Commission’s adjusted Time Table, the party maintained, the commission is supposed to complete the screening of substituted Candidates by 23rd June, 2021. This could not be achieved because APC had not agreed on the list of their Candidates. Obviously, OGSIEC will need to adjust the Time Table again. We wonder what they will give this time as the reason.
The party publicity Secretary stated, “The questions now are, Will OGSIEC expect the other Political Parties to agree to any further adjustment to the Time Table? Will they be able to maintain the July 24th, 2021 date for the LG Elections? How can we now trust OGSIEC to conduct a free, fair and credible election with the way it had been “dancing” to the tune of APC? Indeed, is this OGSIEC truly independent”.