25th November, 2015
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said that its Nov. 28 date for an election to fill the vacant Plateau State House of Assembly seat of Quan’Pan North still stands.
Jeffry Dashe of the PDP, representing Quan’Pan North constituency in the assembly, died on August 25 after a protracted illness
However, INEC said on Wednesday in Jos that the election would hold with only two political parties participating.
Osaretin Imahiyereobo, a Deputy Director of the commission and Head, Voter Education and Publicity told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that only three political parties contested the initial election on April 11.
He said that the parties that took part in the April election were the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Mega Peoples Progressive Party (MPPP).
He, however, said the MPPP had opted out of the bye-election scheduled for Saturday, as it did not file any nomination papers.
Imahiyereobo said that card reader machines would be used for the election and that movement of persons would be restricted in the area to avoid infiltration by non-voters.
He said that out of the total number of 27,316 registered voters in the five wards of Goemak-Goechim, Doemak-Koplong, Dokan-Kasuwa, Kwa and Kwang, that only 26,832 persons who had collected their Permanent Voter Cards (PVC’s)would be allowed to vote.
The head of voter education said that temporary voter cards were not allowed.
He said that e-collation would be used in sending the results to Abuja, and that training of personnel for the poll had commenced.
He said that sensitive materials for the poll had yet to be distributed and assured parties of INEC’s readiness to conduct a free, fair and transparent poll.
“As far as we are concerned, Quan’Pan election is a very sensitive one to us; anybody who has nothing to do with it will not be allowed to enter the different venues on that day.
“To ensure security, we have held stakeholders’ meetings at the Local Government level and visited the State Security Service (SSS) and the Commissioner of Police– to show you how serious it is.
“Quan’Pan is a small place: we want to avoid a lot of people encroaching during the poll,” he said.