APC, AD, DPP, 10 Other Parties boycott Bayelsa Rescheduled Elections
Thirteen parties in Bayelsa state under the aegis of The Coalition of Political Parties in Bayelsa State (CPPBS) have announced plans to boycott Saturday’s rescheduled State Assembly election.
The parties which include the All Progressives Congress (APC), Alliance for Democracy (AD) and Democratic Peoples Party (DPP), said they are shunning the elections because the Independent National Electoral Commission and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are working to rig out other political parties.
The chairmen of the 13 political parties released a statement, saying: “There is a ploy to hoard all sensitive electoral materials, result sheets inclusive, such that, after the conduct of the election with the non-sensitive materials, the INEC staff, the electoral officers of the eight local governments and other adhoc staff in the state will converge at designated places to enter their manufactured results into the original result sheet in favour of the PDP candidates.
“The PDP has perfected an illicit arrangement to use the military to intimidate, harass and muzzle other candidates and genuine voters in a ploy to influence the election in favour of PDP candidates.”
The parties explained that they had no other choice but to boycott since the INEC resident electoral commissioner told them that he has no power to stop the election.
Signatories to the statement include Chief Timipa Orunimigha (APC), Gerebo Joseph (UDP), Abbey Daniel (APA), Oniekpe Prince (SDP) and Owei Woniwei (AD).