…says ODIEC Chairman has committed a lot of Electoral blunders
The Mega Party Chairman in Ondo State, Prince Poroye Biyi Bill, a seasoned Elections Consultant, has explained why the upcoming Local Government Elections scheduled for 18th April, 2020 must be critically looked into.
Poroye while speaking in a radio Programme (Political Podium) aired on Positive FM 102.5, today (23/01/2020) in Akure, said the ODIEC Chairman, Prof. Dinakin had committed a lot of Electoral errors in rolling out the timetable for the elections and that any Political Party participating in the election without a thorough perusal of the electoral acts would have succeeded in wasting their resources.
In his statement, Poroye enumerated the errors as follow:
- that the ODIEC Chairman ought to have collected the voters’ register before rolling out the timetable. He noted that the Chairman has not collected the voters’ register as we speak but went ahead to fix the date for the elections which is against the Electoral Act 2010 as Ammended.
- that the ODIEC Chairman is hanging on the fact that he can not be charged to court having given the election date or banking on the influence of the government.
Meanwhile, the position of the law is clear;
Section 87(10) says, “nothing in this section shall empower the Courts to stop the holding of Primaries or General Election under this Act pending the determination of a suit”.
“The Law says, once an election date is published, no Court or individual can stop the process, NOT that you cannot go to court to challenge it but courts cannot grant orders to stop the process. So, if the law says no court can stop the elections, then, the ODIEC Chairman, has no legal right to stop or abort the process of 2018 Election. Therefore, by the provision of the Law, the Chairman has to conclude the process of 2018 Election that was postponed initially and allow the eleted officers complete their tenure before rolling out another timetable for fresh Election”. Poroye said.
- On the new timetable released for the 2020 LG ELECTIONS;
Section 30(1) says, “the Commission shall, not later than 90 days before the day appointed for holding of an election under this Act publish a notice in each of the Local Government- Ward
(a) stating the date of the election
(b) appointing the place at which nominating papers are to be delivered”.
Section 30(2) says, “the notice shall be published in each Constituency (203 Wards and 18 LGAs- for that of LG Election) in respect of which an election is to be held”.
“Some of these Sections were being violated especially Section 30(2) by the ODIEC Chairman, a Prof of Law for that matter”. Said Poroye
- Section 99(1) says, “for the purpose of this Act, the period of campaigning in public by every political party shall commence 90 days before polling day and end 24 hours prior to the day”.
In fact, this is the mother of all the errors, the ODIEC Chairman ignored this section and fixed January 14, – April 16, 2020 for campaigning which is 94 days before the election, contrary to the 90 days stipulated by the law. Also, fixed April 18 for the Election day, which is 32 hours before the election day, contrary to the 24 hours stipulated by the law. Poroye noted.
“Going by these records, I think the ODIEC Chairman has no Electoral experience to conduct the forthcoming LG Election in the state. Noting that, any Election that is held outside the stipulated date by law, it’s STATUS BAR” and will be taking by law that no election was conducted. You cannot build something on nothing”.
He then called on the Anthony General of the state, to advise the ODIEC and Government appropriately so that the state money would not be wasted. The ODIEC chairman should listen to good counsel.
Poroye finally commended the Governor, Arakunrin Oluwaritimi Akeredolu SAN for deeming it fit to inaugurate the ODIEC Board earlier enough in 2017/2018 to enable a democratically elected government at the LG level but left for the Board to do the needful on time. Poroye submitted.