Anambra Election: INEC says about 2.2 million voters ready for governorship poll

The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, on Wednesday disclosed that about 2.2 million voters registered for the upcoming governorship election in Anambra State scheduled to hold on November 18, this year.

The commission stated that 2,158,171 voters registered for the upcoming poll, adding that it was not thinking of disqualifying any candidate in the scheduled election.

The Director of Voter Education and Publicity of INEC, Mr. Oyewole Uzzi, a lawyer, who disclosed this, added that thirty seven political parties are sponsoring candidates for the poll.

Information obtained by Punch reveals that Uzzi was reacting to a threat by a governorship candidate of the Action Democratic Party, Mr. Ifeanyichukwu Okonkwo, that he would sue the commission if it failed to disqualify certain candidates in the race who had exceeded the amount of money stipulated for governorship contest in the Electoral Act.

Section 91 of the Electoral Act 2010 as amended provides that a governorship candidate can spend a maximum amount of N200m in an election.

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Okonkwo had in a press conference held in Awka on Wednesday said he would drag to court Governor Willie Obiano of the All Progressive Grand Alliance, Mr. Oseloka Obaze of the Peoples Democratic Party, INEC and a certain television station in that respect, adding that he had been monitoring the candidates who had commenced their campaigns.

He said he noticed that they have spent a lot of money of the campaigns and would not hesitate to drag them to court to explain the sources of money, ading that if INEC was not a weak institution, it ought to have disqualified such candidates in the race in accordance with the laws.

“I will go to court to challenge these expenditures. We need to know where they are getting all these monies they are spending. For those who have started their campaigns, I am tracking their expenditures.

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“I know how much it costs to invite a television station to provide live coverage for an event, and these parties have consistently been on live television broadcast for all their events. We see all the vehicles they have bought and branded and we know how much each of the vehicles costs.

“We will even need to know who is leasing these vehicles to them if they were procured on lease. These are the questions we will be finding answers to in court.”

The INEC director however, insisted that the commission would not disqualify any candidate based on such allegations.

“We won’t disqualify any candidate based on such allegations. The conditions for disqualification of a governorship candidate in an election are contained in the constitution and over spending is not one of the conditions.