APC, PDP disagree on fair election

The All Progressives Congress  and the Peoples Democratic Party on Thursday exchanged words about the forthcoming Saturday governorship election in Anambra State.

While the APC said there was nothing on the grounds to show that the election would be free and fair, the PDP said that the opposition party was already crying because it was aware that it (APC) would lose the election.

But the APC asked President Goodluck Jonathan to live up to his promise of a free and fair election in Anambra State on Saturday, saying the President must be sincere at all times.

In a statement signed by the Interim National Publicity Secretary of the party, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, on Thursday, the party however regretted that there was nothing on the grounds to show that the election would be free and fair.

Mohammed said despite the President’s promise, which he gave in Awka on Wednesday, the election might not be free after all.

Mohammed said, “Rightly or wrongly in our country, institutions of state take a cue from the President’s body language. They know that members of the ruling PDP who engaged in electoral malfeasance and brigandage during last month’s Delta Central Senatorial election were not punished.

“They know that security agencies that turned themselves to the armed wing of the PDP were not sanctioned. In this context, therefore, the President’s promise of a free and fair election will not mean much to those bent on repeating the same in Anambra.”

According to him, the fact that one of the candidates in Saturday’s election, Willie Obiano of APGA, has allegedly continued to evade justice despite a glaring electoral offence committed by him, through his proven multiple registration, does not give anyone much confidence that INEC can indeed be trusted to ensure a level-playing field for all the parties.

He said that the President should be careful in staking the credibility of his high office on these elections, adding that his promise of free and fair elections in Ondo did not materialise.

He also pointed out that the unprecedented “electoral heist in Delta does not back up his administration’s claim that the country’s electoral architecture has improved under his watch.

“That is why we say the President must walk the talk. He should know that talk is cheap. If the institutions of state that have any role to play in the election fail to live up to that role, and the ruling party continues to engage in a flagrant abuse of office by stealing votes in the most blatant manner, then the President’s promise of a free and fair election would have been rubbished.”

The APC spokesperson said the world would  be keenly watching on Saturday to see how the Independent National Electoral Commission, the police and other security agencies carry out their roles, “ to see whether all that matters to the President is a free and fair election – as he has promised – or the rubbishing, at all cost, of the APC.”

In its reaction, the PDP berated the APC, saying the opposition party was merely crying wolf ahead of the governorship election “because they know that the people have rejected them.”