'WHY WE CAN’T CONDUCT COUNCIL ELECTIONS IN DELTA'

As discordant tunes trail  the none conduct of local government election in Delta State  several months  after council chairmen left office,  the newly appointed Chairman of Delta State Independent Electoral Commission (DSIEC) Mr. Moses Ogbe   has cited lack of funds, infrastructure , logistics  and inadequate security as major reasons why council elections could not  be conducted in Delta State.
Ogbe who   stated this yesterday in Asaba while fielding questions from newsmen during a courtesy  visit to Delta State  NUJ secretariat  said what he meet on ground upon assumption of office 100 days ago, were inadequate  for him to conduct a free and fair local government election in the state.

He said the commission lacked adequate logistics to move electoral materials round the state, adding that the current office accommodation of the commission grossly, inadequate as there was no escape  route in the  office in times of emergency, saying that arrangements were being made to move the commissions office to another location.

According to him, “there are some conditions precedent to conducting a good election , and those conditions must be meet, some of the structures we met on ground , there are not conducive for the conduct of election, for example, the office where we are operating from , it will be very difficult for me and my team to  conduct election  from there, because each time it rains, the environment is usually flooded.

“All the roads leading to the Commission’s office are so narrow that it cannot contain vehicles that will convey ballot boxes and other electoral materials to their various polling units. Also, in the event of threat to our security, there is no escape route, so election can only be conducted where there will be free flow of movement, people can come into the office and freely go out.

“We want to get all these things in place before the election can hold and we just got approval to look for a new office accommodation, the ministry of land and urban development is working on that. Secondly, the Commission does not have a secretary now, we are working on that, because election cannot be conducted without a secretary for the Commission, so as soon as we get all these rough edges fine tuned, we will come out with a time table for the conduct of the local government election in the state but for now I cannot give a categorical date”.

Source: Thisday