Alagoa Morris urges BYSIEC to conduct LG elections as scheduled, if not…….
The Bayelsa State Independent Electoral Commission (BYSIEC) has since announced the date for the local government council elections to be held on the 14th of May 2022.
However, it is becoming unclear whether the elections would hold as scheduled by the state electoral umpire.
According to anonymous sources in the commission, the Bayelsa state council polls may not hold as scheduled.
“The reason is that the date fixed by BYSIEC for the elections is corresponding with the dates billed for the party primaries of the two major political parties in the country, that is the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC),” a source told our reporter.
In an exclusive interview with Mangrovepen.ng, foremost environmental rights activist and social commentator, Morris Alagoa, said the anticipated postponement of the elections would be unfortunate given that Bayelsans are already singing the praises of the governor for the decision to conduct the council elections.
In his words: “Already pronouncements have been made for the council elections and some Bayelsans had even commended Governor Douye Diri for not towing the part of “caretakers” as it used to be in the past.
“So, the right thing to do is to conduct the local government elections as earlier proposed or planned.
“Anything else at the expiration of the tenure of the current council chairmen would be associated with what obtained in the past and that won’t make Senator Douyi Diri any better than his predecessors.
“Caretaker or acting council chairpersons should not be contemplated at this time of our democracy, which cannot be described as nascent anymore.”
Morris believes that conducting the council polls would benefit Bayelsans, opining that it will indicate progress in terms of discipline in avoiding relapse to the caretaker scenario.
According to him, development cannot be measured only in terms of physical infrastructure, but also by keeping to the ethos of democracy.
“Some of such things are indices when it comes to measuring how maturing our system is. And, if Bayelsa falls into the pass category, it would be a pride to all. We need to move forward; procrastination is a thief of time,” he said.
Morris said he remains an advocate for local government elections to be conducted by INEC, however, he believes “there is need for BYSIEC to prove those of us who don’t have confidence in it wrong by conducting the polls as scheduled and as an unbiased umpire.”
Source – Mangrove pen
