There are indications that today’s local government election in Ekiti State may end up a ‘lone’ party election.
Though, about 13 political parties are said to have indicated participation in the poll, three political parties are dominant in the state.
The big three include the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Social Democratic Party (SDP) and Peoples Democratic Party (PD).
Though, SDP had a bright showing in 2022 gubernatorial election, coming second to APC, the party’s popularity and strength have since receded.
PDP, the third dominant party, has decined participation in today’s election.
EKSIEC sources told The Yoruba Times that the party did not collect application forms for any candidate for the election.
Investigations revealed that the party, apart from lack of faith in any election conducted by the APC, the ruling party, is presently not in good form in the state to participate in any electoral contest.
PDP, which is embroiled in internal crisis, has its two factions in court over which of them has the soul of the former ruling party in the state.
A PDP source confided in TYT that the party was not interested in any contest for now, arguing that it would be a waste of time participating in an election in which a state electoral commission controlled by the ruling party would serve as the umpire.
“We’re not interested in such elections. EKSIEC is controlled by APC; so, what’s the point?
Besides, we’re in court as we the party is presently polarized”, adding “What we have in place at the state level is a caretaker leadership.”
TYT checks revealed that the state secretariat of the party was empty as only a security operative was on hand to respond to enquiries.
Calls to mobile lines of state caretaker committees of the party did not get through.
The APC, on the other hand has expressed its readiness for the election as it had mobilised members and the electorate for a successful outing.
State Publicity Secretary of the party, Segun Dipe expressed confidence that the APC would sweep the poll on Saturday.
“We’re well prepared. You can see that APC is fully prepared; we don’t consider it a one-horse race, there are other parties who may not have candidates, but looking for our errors”, adding “we have crossed all ‘T’s and dotted all ‘I’s; so, we are fully prepared.”
He disclosed that the party lost a councilloship candidate in Ikole area, but added that the party had quickly replaced the deceased.
In answer to a question, Dipe explained that none of the party’s candidates was disqualified as APC carried out a thorough internal screening and made sure all the stipulated conditions by EKSIEC were met before presenting the candidates.
“The minimum qualification is school certificate and we concentrated on that”, he said.
The APC spokesman maintained that the party expected a total sweep of the poll based on circumstances and conditions prevalent, explaining that the opposition was gradually surrendering to the party.
“Considering what the government is doing, other parties are gradually surrendering to APC. We’ve gained ground and we can assure you that these other parties are rather supporting us, than opposing us. They believe we have all it takes to shade them if they come to us. So, all of them are now romancing our party, and we are open and receptive to them”, he concluded.
By Tunde Adeleke
Ado-Ekiti
