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The recently ended Osun local government election was deemed unnecessary and a deliberate waste of resources by the Peoples Democratic Party in Osun State.
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The party stated that the alleged failure of the exercise was a vindication of its position that illegality will not have its way in the State in a statement released in Osogbo on Saturday and signed by Adekunle Akindele, the Osun PDP caretaker chairman.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) administration, the party said, staged the exercise as a charade. The party requested the State governor, Adegboyega Oyetola, to make sure that every dollar spent on the unsuccessful effort was returned to the State’s treasury.
“The procedure was defective from the beginning, and Oyetola did not respond well to our attempts to explain this to her. In Osun State, there are either no voters present at polling places or only a few APC members to greet them.
“The allegedly used ballot papers do not name political parties or the local government they were intended for. This explains why Osun residents’ and observers’ confusion about whether the Oyetola administration held an election or referendum.
“What happened today demonstrated that the people of Osun do not accept the electoral charade, and as a party, we are proud of their fortitude and resolve in rejecting a risky precedent that posed a serious threat to our State.
“It is important to note that, in addition to the fact that the purported election was held in violation of accepted democratic principles, the ongoing legal actions disputing the validity of the NOTICE and the election’s processes—which the APC and OSIEC took all within their power to thwart their swift determination—are sufficient to declare the entire endeavor futile.
“The OSIEC Chairman should note that he has prepared a solid foundation of gross misconduct for himself and his members. As a result, he will be held accountable in front of the public and forever be remembered as the biggest fraud ever to happen to democracy, not just in Osun State but throughout Nigeria as well,” the statement continued.
Adegboyega Oyetola, the governor of Osun State, hailed the election as being calm, orderly, and rancor-free in his assessment of the process.
He continued by saying that it showed that the country’s democracy is flourishing and moving forward steadily.
Oyetola praised the Osun State Independent Electoral Commission (OSIEC) for its dedication to having a free, fair, transparent, credible, and acceptable electoral process while expressing hope about Nigeria’s political future.
“Thanks to God, the process has been exceedingly orderly, calm, and civil. My wife and I just voted for the candidates we wanted to support, and I think that’s exactly what’s happening in almost every voting place in the State.
Elections for local governments are crucial. We should all execute our civic duty by voting for the candidates of our choice since local government is the lifeblood of interaction in the government, he said.
In the meantime, OSIEC has explained why it chose to include YES or NO on the ballot for the Osun LG election.
Only the APC has candidates for councilor and chairmanship in the State’s local government election, according to OSIEC Chairman Segun Oladitan. For this reason, the Commission chose the process.
Other political parties that had expressed interest in the race, according to Oladitan, had yet to nominate any candidates as of the final day for nominations.
Additionally, he revealed that the councillor candidates had been deemed elected without opposition following the conclusion of nominations and that the election was exclusively for the chairmanship position.
“As of the nomination deadline, the councilors have been proclaimed elected without opposition. However, a provision of the Electoral Act stipulates that there must be a Yes or No vote because the chairmanship position requires additional qualifications.
“Because there used to be many political parties, the moment a candidate becomes the sole one, he or she becomes the candidate of the entire community; therefore, his or her popularity must be evaluated.
Therefore, we have implemented the Electoral Act, 2022, for this election.
