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Imo guber poll: Achonu charges INEC on collation rules adherence
He noted that such an occurrence has happened in the past where all the election results were transported to Local Government headquarters or State office, adding that it is during this process that rigging or hijacking of boxes takes place.
The Imo State Labour Party governorship candidate in the November 11 election, Senator Athan Achonu has urged the electoral umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC in the State to strictly adhere to rules and regulations in the collation of November 11 electoral results in Imo State.
Senator Achonu who made this statement at the weekend in a message to the press, said “It is important and lawful that election results must be collated at the official designated Ward centers, against the move by the umpire to shift it to local Government headquarters for the same purpose,” said Achonu.
“Collation of votes at official Ward level is contained in the electoral act and must be adhered to by INEC officials to avoid manipulation.
“I will urge INEC in Imo State to instruct its officials in every Ward to abide by the rules by collating election results at the officially designated Ward level and not take laws into their hands to shift collation of results to local government headquarters that may give room to manipulations,” he said.
In his statement, Achonu cited the case of the Isiala-Mbano INEC Office that was burnt down, while urging INEC to announce special centers for all the areas that have similar cases, to avert any form of rigging.
“We call on INEC to also publish the names of places and Wards where the election will not hold, for the public to be in the know, to avoid manipulation,” He said.
He noted that such an occurrence has happened in the past where all the election results were transported to Local Government headquarters or State office, adding that it is during this process that rigging or hijacking of boxes takes place.
“We don’t want such thing to happen again, as INEC must in its wisdom follow due process to avoid unnecessary challenges and election disputes,” Achonu added.
