By Cajetan Mmuta, Awka
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Friday warned political parties participating in Saturday March 18th State House of Assembly election in Anambra State not to come to the various polling units with Point of Sale ( POS) machines during the exercise.
The State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Dr Queen Elizabeth Agwu, issued the warning during a press conference in Awka.
She specifically cautioned the ruling All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA), Labour Party (LP), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the All Progressive Congress (APC) and other political parties for the Saturday’s contest for the state legislature.
She threatened that the law would catch up with any party agent or supporter caught with POS machines for vote buying no matter how highly placed the person might be.
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“We have 21 local governments and we have watched and distributed our materials down, most especially the ballot papers that are meant for the State Assembly elections and this has been properly and systematically outlined so that there won’t be a mix-up.
According to the REC, “It is a tradition that we normally move our materials, particularly, the sensitive materials to the local governments from the local governments to the RAC centres [and] to the polling units.”
She said the process of distribution of election materials as supervised by the commission in the state was witnessed by representatives of various political parties, security agents, the media and other stakeholders in the state.
Dr. Agwu noted that the INEC had consolidated on the successes it recorded during the February 25th Presidential and National Assembly elections in the country, stressing that the commission was ready and determined to conduct free, fair and credible elections into the state house of assembly
She assured that every contentious issues arising from the Bimodal Voters Accreditatoon Systen (BVAS) for the conduct of the polls had been settled for effective performance.
She urged voters to come out enmasse their votes for their preferred candidates as security operatives would be on guard accross the state to ensure safety of all even as she said that materials and officials for the election would be at their designated areas latest by 8:30am for accreditation and voting.
