The People’s Trust (PT) presidential candidate, Mr Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim, has written the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Mahmoud Yakubu requesting a further extension of the Presidential and National Assembly elections because the one week extension is too short to meet the stated enormous logistics requirement for the polls.
The candidate, who lately led the online polls of most preferred candidates amongst the Third Force, argued in a letter to the INEC chairman that another extension was reasonable in view of the logistics burden on the contestants and the parties. The candidates and the parties, he said, would now have to repeat logistics preparations that have hitherto been deployed to achieve the level of mobilisation at the February 16 scheduled election.
He stressed that “It is my considered opinion that in the haste to stick to a quickly announced date for the election, the commission may not have paid adequate attention to the attendant voter apathy that may result if adequate confidence building measures are not implemented to win back ‘would-be’ voters for the next date of polling.”
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According to him as a result of potential voter apathy in some sections of the country which may substantially affect the results of the election, a ”new date of election should be between three to four weeks from February 16 not one week from February 16 as previously announced. This is more so for self-funded candidates and political parties who do not have the possibilities or intentions of falling quickly on the state treasuries to refinance another logistic deployment.”
The presidential candidate noted that campaigning should also resume undoubtedly in consonance with extant legislation that allows campaigns to continue up till 24 hours before elections, in order to achieve the same level of mobilisation of voters as before February 16.
In his letter copied to the United Nations representatives, observer and civil society groups, the diplomatic community and the media, he added that “the commission should liaise with the National Orientation Agency (NOA), who should use their national networks to ensure mobilisation of communities, social and interest groups to reach potential voters in order to avoid voter apathy at the next date of election.”
