042 Relaoded:Enugu LG elections hold today

Voters in Enugu State will go to the polls today (Nov 2, 2013) to elect Chairmen and Councilors of the 17 local government councils in the State.
It will be fourth consecutive local government elections to be conducted in the state since the inception of the Sullivan Chime administration in 2007.
As in previous exercises, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, is once again set to sweep the polls as all of its candidates for the chairmanship positions in the 17 local government councils are running unopposed while over 97 per cent of the Councilors have already been returned unopposed.

The Enugu State Independent Electoral Commission (ENSIEC) has said it was poised to conduct a free, fair and peaceful exercise adding that all the necessary materials had been assembled.

The State Governor Sullivan Chime who had just completed his campaign tour of local governments in the state ahead of today’s exercise, has been calling on voters to turn out en masse to vote despite the chairmanship candidates were running unopposed. This he said would be in compliance with the requirements of the law for them to vote affirmation.

Meanwhile, an Enugu HIgh Court has denied newspaper reports saying that it granted an order restraining the Enugu State Independent Electoral Commission (ENSIEC) from conducting elections in Ezeagu and Isi-Uzo Local Governments in the Local government elections.

The publications had claimed that the Court presided over by Justice A. O Onovo had given the order following a motion ex-parte filed by the Chairmanship candidates of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in the two councils. However, in a letter dated November 1, 2013 to the Chairman of ENSIEC and copied to the State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, the Chief Registrar of the State High Court, Mr D.K Eko declared that no such order was given by the Court.

He said that contrary to reports, Justice Onovo merely granted the applicants leave to apply for an order of judicial review against the respondents.

The letter made it clear that the Court had in making the order, expressly declared that the leave as granted to the applicants, shall not operate as a stay of action on the conduct of the elections in the two local governments, as had been requested by the applicants.

This clarification thus clears the way for ENSIEC to conduct elections in all the councils in the state including the Ezeagu and Isi-Uzo local government councils.

Apart from the PDP no other political party is fielding candidates for the 17 chairmanship positions in the state as some contestants who obtained nomination forms to run on the platform of the All Progressive Congress, APC, and were earlier cleared for the election were later disqualified by ENSIEC for alleged non-compliance.
By Tony Edike Enugu
Source:vanguardngr