…NNPP’s Logo Missing On Ballot
Sam Philip
There was low turnout of voters in the Saturday local government election in Ondo State.
This could have been influenced by the withdrawal of the major opposition party in the state, Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) from the election.
Officials of Ondo State Independent Electoral Commission(ODIEC) arrived polling units late as most of the arrived around 10: 30 am when they were expected to have been there as early as 8:00am
In Leo area of Akure, Akure South Local Government Area, two among the polling units there were opened around 10:18am.
The electoral officials were seen pasting the voter’s register list on the walls.
But there was no voter in sight as 10:30am in neither of the polling units.
At Ward 5, Unit 20 behind Adegbemile Cultural Centre in Akure South Local Government, 867 voter’s registered in the unit but only 27 persons showed up at the polling unit.
Among the voters that showed up at the polling units, 21 voted for All Progressives Congress(APC), while 6 voted for Labour Party(LP).
Though there was no violence recorded in areas covered by Independent while the election was ongoing, but it was discovered that the New Nigeria People’s Party(NNPP) logo on the ballot was the old one.
This development could lead to the nullification of the election if challenged at the Election Petition Tribunal.
Reacting to the development, the state Chairman of NNPP, Olagokun Peter said if ODIEC failed to cancel the election, the party would approach the tribunal for redress.
He said: “We have noticed that the logo of our party is missing on the ballot today when we wanted to cast our vote.
“Our supporters and people of the state who wanted to vote for our party said they could not see our logo on the ballot and had to leave the polling units disappointed and frustrated.
“If the state electoral commission fails to cancel the election, we will challenge the election in the tribunal.”