| Enugu to conduct LG elections Feb 24 |
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THE Enugu State Independent Electoral Commission (ENSIEC) said yesterday that elections into the 17 recognized local government areas in the state would be conducted on February 24, next year with the belief that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) would have been through with the ongoing voters’ registration exercise. Chairman of the commission, Ezeudo Abel Nwobodo, who made this known at a meeting with leaders of various political parties in Enugu said the council elections would be conducted only in the recognized local government areas, explaining that the Development Centres created by the state government would not be involved in the exercise. He said that 340 councillors and 17 local government chairmen would be elected from candidates that would be fielded by various political parties in the February election. Nwobodo explained that the date fixed for the election was agreed upon by the Forum of the Chairmen of State Independent Electoral Commissions of Nigeria (FOSIECON) with the desire to ensure continuity of the system of democratically elected governments at the grassroots. The meeting with the political parties, he said, was summoned to assure leaders of the political parties of the readiness of the commission to cooperate with them in the bid to sustain democracy through the conduct of elections into the local government councils that would be free, fair, credible and acceptable to all concerned. “ I want to assure you that the commission will be just, fair and transparent in considering the submissions from various parties for participation in the 2007 Elections,” he told the party leaders. He said that even though INEC has assured the state electoral bodies of its efforts to produce new voters register that will be used for the council election, the existing register should be used for the elections if it became impossible to have an updated voters registers. Advising the political parties to ensure that only popular, credible and intelligent persons are selected as candidates for the election, the ENSIEC boss said this had become necessary since the calibre of legislators and chairmen reflects on the quality of legislation and decisions by the local governments. |