From Emmanuel Onwusoro, Ado-Ekiti
The All Progressives Congress (APC), in Ekiti State has won all the 38 chairmanship and 177 councillorship positions in the 16 Local Government Areas and 19 Development Areas elections held on Saturday.
The results were announced by the Chairman of the Ekiti State Independent Electoral Commission (EKSIEC), Justice Cornelius Akintayo (rtd), at the Situation Room of the EKSIEC in Ado-Ekiti.
Justice Akintayo commended the people of the state for the peaceful atmosphere that prevailed throughout the voting period.
Other political parties were expected to participate in the poll, but the APC ended up being the only party that took part as others pulled out because of what they described as lack of confidence in the state independent electoral body.
Political parties on the ballot for the election include Action Alliance, Action Democratic Party, African Democratic Congress, Labour party, New Nigeria People’s Party, People’s Redemption Party, and Zenith Labour Party.
The turn out of voters who started to trickle to their polling units from 8am was low despite the level of publicity and sensitization ahead of the day by the electoral body.
Though, there was strict compliance with the directives from the state government and the state police command, coupled with the presence of security agents who mounted road blocks on the major roads in the state capital, Ado-Ekiti.
The same poor outing of the electorate played out at some of the communities visited.
Voters and other respondents attributed the poor turn out to the believe that their votes would never count, describing the exercise as a “one man show”.
Other political parties also accused the electoral body of manipulating the process to favour a particular political party,adding that the outcome had been predetermined.
Meanwhile, the Givermoe of Ekiti state, Biodun Oyebanji, expressed satisfaction with the peaceful conduct of residents during the council polls.
He made the remark when he cast his vote at Ikogosi-Ekiti, his country-home.
