Unease as Lagos holds delayed polls today

By Olasunkanmi Akoni

After months and years of dithering procrastination, local council elections are set to hold in 20 Local Government Areas, LGAs and 37 Local Council Development Areas, LCDAs of Lagos State.

1,300 candidates are contesting to be chairmen, vice-chairmen, and councillors in the 376 wards in the state.

The last local government election was held in 2011. A total of 28 political parties participated in the election in which 5,000 candidates contested for 57 chairmanship seats and 376 councillorship positions in the state.

24 hours after the election which took place on October 22, 2011, protests erupted over alleged irregularities in the announcement of the results and mainly because the Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission, LASIEC at that time decided to centralise the results.

The main show down at that time was between the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the then ruling Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN.

The protest followed the announcement of results by a state-run television station contrary to LASIEC’s instructions warnings not to do so.

The PDP rejected the outcome of the polls, alleging that they had been rigged to favour ACN.

Though, ACN won most of the seats on offer, the PDP which had been favoured to win in its strongholds in Badagry and Lekki areas of the state strongly denounced the results which it claimed were doctored.

After the term of office of those who were inaugurated ended, the then governor of the state inaugurated 57 Executive Secretaries, ES, to run the affairs of 57 councils in the state following expiration of their statutory three-year tenure on October 18, 2014, of the elected chairmen

The councils had since been run by the council managers before the appointment of Executive Secretaries.

Between then and now the councils have been administered by unelected appointees of Fashola and subsequently, by those designated by his successor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode.

The procrastination of the state government to organise the election compelled the National Conscience Party, NCP to drag the government to court and in October 2015, the Lagos High Court in Igbosere ordered that new elections be conducted in all the Local Government Areas of Lagos State within 30 days.

In the ruling, Justice Abdulfatai Lawal said:

“I call upon the Lagos State Government to immediately implement the judgment of the court by dismantling all the illegal structures of local government caretaker committees.

“I also call upon all state governments where the local governments are being manned by administrators to conduct elections immediately.”

Indications that the state administration would obey the order did not show until May 2016 when the new governor began processes for the election to the councils following various developments considered as a prelude to the conduct of the polls.

Among the measures was the assent by Ambode of the Local Government Administration Amendment 2016, bill into law.

One of the provisions of the new law was the increase in the tenure of council chairmen and councillors from three years to four years.

The increase was believed to have flowed from the need to minimise the cost of organising the elections through reducing the frequency of the elections.

Intrigues within the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC led to the dissolution of the caretaker committees inaugurated by Fashola and their replacement on June 13, 2016, by a new set of sole administrators. The move some claimed was to position trusted associates of the new administration in power ahead of the council polls which had been called by LASIEC.

Chairman of LASIEC, Justice Ayotunde Philips, (Rted), said in line with its statutory responsibilities, the commission requested all the candidates whose names were submitted to it by the various political parties vying for elective offices in the forthcoming elections to appear before it for validation.

The 12 political parties that presented chairmanship and councillor candidates for the election are: Accord (Accord ), Action Alliance ( AA ), Alliance for Democracy ( AD )All Progressives Congress ( APC ), Peoples Democratic Party ( PDP ), Labour Party ( LP ) and All Progressives Grand Alliance ( APGA ).

Others are United Democratic Party ( UDP ), United Progressive Party ( UPP ), Kowa Party ( KP ), National Action Council ( NAC ) and Peoples Democratic Movement ( PDM).

Meantime, the participation of the NCP in the polls was as at press time still unsure given the party’s court case against LASIEC. The party had asked a Lagos High Court to stop the conduct of the elections on the claim that the commission refused to register its 77 candidates submitted to LASIEC.

The party had initially dragged LASIEC to court for imposing administrative levies on the parties participating in the election.

The LASIEC guidelines had stipulated N50, 000 for chairmanship form, a demand the party said was irregular.

National General Secretary of the party, Comrade Ayodele Akele alleged that the guideline was part of a grand conspiracy by the APC LASIEC and the Judiciary to manipulate the electoral process in favour of the ruling party in the state.

“We have been ostracized along with the millions of people that never met the conditions imposed by LASIEC. Unlike LASIEC, Independent National Election Commission, INEC forms are available online free of charge for party candidates to down load fill and submit with supporting documents. Why must INEC forms be free and LASIEC forms are not. Why must LASIEC case be different, where is the precedent. ?”

He maintained it was completely illegal and undemocratic for LASIEC to charge a single kobo for any form for the election given what he claimed as Supreme Court rulings against the guidelines which were upon a lawsuit filed by the founder of NCP late Chief Gani Fawehinmi.

The ruling APC has also had its own share of troubles as internal dissension over the conduct of the primaries led to a serious strife which even by Election Eve was still being managed.

The potential damage on the ruling party has, however, been mitigated by the fact that the main opposition, Peoples Democratic Party, PDP entered the contest as a divided house.

LASIEC had taken candidates drawn from the Senator Ali Modu Sheriff led tendency which was last week delegitimized upon the ruling of the Supreme Court which identified the Ahmed Makarfi tendency. The Makarfi faction had shepherded its supporters and candidates towards Labour Party through an alliance between both parties.

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