………in Enugu State
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says that the rescheduled rerun election for the Enugu South 1 State Constituency was postponed due to security reason.
Speaking in Enugu on Sunday the INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner in the state, Dr Chukwuemeka Chukwu, said that the election was cancelled earlier last week due to security consideration.
Chukwu said that the rerun election, which was fixed after stakeholders’ engagements to hold on June 8, would hold on a further date to be communicated by the commission.
“Last week, the scheduled rerun election was postponed and duly communicated to all stakeholders with a clear reason for the postponement.
“But I am surprised some misguided people are taking up all sorts of unfounded falsehood and rumours against the commission that it seems the election had been held in secret even as I am speaking to you,” he said.
Labour Party (LP) candidate Mr Bright Ngene, won the State House of Assembly and was declared winner of the March 18, 2023 election. He was sworn in but the election was nullified by the tribunal for being inconclusive.
The postponed election was the third attempt by the INEC to conduct the exercise again and as early as 7am on Saturday, voters had converged in the affected polling units but no INEC official showed up at the venue.
The LP candidate for the election, Mr Ngene, who was at the polling centre expressed dismay over the development.
He told newsmenthat there was no information available to him and his party that the election would not hold.
On his part, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Mr Sam Ngene, however, said the postponement was duly communicated to his party.
