The Labour Party (LP) has asked the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to include its party logo on all the ballot papers across the country and where the logo has been omitted before Saturday presidential and National Assembly elections or postpone the elections until it corrects the error.
On Wednesday, the electoral commission took delivery of sensitive materials for the Presidential and National Assembly elections ahead of Saturday but it was discovered on Thursday that the Labour Party’s logo was omitted on Senatorial and House of Representatives ballot papers in Lagos and Ondo states.
Reacting to the exclusion of the party’s logo on the ballot papers, a Labour Party chieftain on Thursday said, “We expect that as the umpire, INEC will be transparent. Transparent to the extent that everything that it has done in preparation for this election should be made visible to the public so that the people know.
“The election materials that were prepared for Saturday elections were kept till the last minute, a few days to the elections and only this morning by mere chance we were able to discover that this unacceptable error was committed by INEC.
“Omitting the logo of the Labour Party, a major player in the Saturday elections from the ballot papers is not a small error. It is not something that anyone can just overlook. It is a deliberate attempt that INEC must own up to and they must quickly correct, otherwise, these elections can never be regarded as being transparent, free, fair and credible, because a lot of Nigerians, a lot of Lagosians will be disenfranchised from exercising their civic rights on Saturday.
“This is why we call on INEC to quickly do the needful by either they do the correction and put the Labour Party logo on the ballot papers or shift the elections but the important thing is that all our Labour Party candidates must be duly represented.”
The Labour Party Chairperson in Lagos State, Dayo Ekong, had in a statement decried the exclusion of the party’s logo on the ballot papers and had called on the INEC to either correct the mistakes or reschedule the National Assembly elections.
Calling on the attention of Nigerians and the international community to the development, Ekong said, “This malicious ‘error’ was found out in Lagos this morning during the routine inspection of election materials by my executive members.
“It was at inspection that it was discovered that the LP was not listed for the election for the Senate and House of Representatives. This is unacceptable and a wicked way of disenfranchising Lagos State electorates.
“It is unimaginable that the Lagos electorate will only vote for the Labour Party Presidential Candidate for the elections slated for Saturday, February 25, as INEC made no provision for the election of the Party’s Senate and House of Representatives Candidates. We cannot accept this as we do not believe that INEC made a mistake but rather a deliberate, malicious and intentional act to disenfranchise our supporters from exercising their civic rights, which is unacceptable.
“Further checks on the IN website revealed that the names of Lagos LP candidates were not uploaded even as the list and court orders for the same were duly submitted to INEC and acknowledged. We have severally pointed out the bias displayed by the State INEC REC towards our Party and his increasing attacks on our leaders.”
Similarly, the party has called for the postponement of Saturday’s general elections in Ondo State after it was also discovered that its logo was omitted from the ballot papers.
The ballot papers affected are for elections into Ondo Central Senatorial District and five House of Representative seats, namely Okitipupa/Irele, Ese-Odo/Ilaje, Akoko Southwest/Akoko Southeast, Ondo East/Ondo West and Akure North/Akure South.
“We expect INEC to do the needful. It was a deliberate act. I do not think any agency of government supersedes the judiciary that gave us judgment,” the party’s secretary in Ondo, Abiodun Agbaje said.
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