PDP rejects Jigawa council polls results
From Saxone Akhaine, Kaduna
THOUGH the All Nigeria People's Party (ANPP) is said to have recorded a landslide victoty at the recent council polls in Jigawa State, it has another hurdle to overcome.
Its main contender, the People's Democratic Party (PDP), has not conceded defeat but has rejected the polls' results.
At the end of the polls a fortnight ago, the State Independent Electoral Commission (SIEC) declared the ANPP winner in all the 27 council areas.
But PDP leaders in the North-West zone hinged their rejection of the polls on the grounds that they were marred by a low turn-out of the electorate.
To the PDP, the poor participation of the electorate underscored their disenchantment with the electoral rules.
The PDP stated that the "ANPP, the ruling party in that state, is claimed to have allocated to itself 100 per cent of all seats contested for and owes an apology to Nigerians".
A statement issued in Kaduna yesterday by the PDP National Vice Chairman, North-West zone, Dr. Bello Haliru Mohammed, said that the decision by the state government to allow the election to hold under alleged faulty electoral laws denied "the politically conscious people of Jigawa state an opportunity to elect their true representatives at the grassroots."
It stressed that the PDP was poised to challenge the undemocratic act through legal means.
The PDP said "Our appeal goes to our teeming party loyalists and supporters, who heeded our earlier call to boycott the elections to remain peaceful and law-abiding and await the decision of the court. They have really done us proud by their demonstration of good character and party discipline in the face of this obvious breach of convention and constitutional norms."
The party said that it was on record that the PDP protested against the electoral processes which were employed in the conduct of local government election.
It said: "Any candidate adjudged as winner in that exercise is merely a carrier of a stolen mandate, as the election was not a true reflection of the wishes of the good people of Jigawa state."
The party continued: "We have reviewed the so-called local government elections, despite our appeal and opposition to same. It is therefore our conclusion that it was a kangaroo exercise both in content and effect. It was a gross violation of all known democratic practices in fact and in deed. It is our observation that what happened in that state was not only improper and illegal, but a celebrated mockery of democracy.
"We condemn in strongest terms the so-called elections purportedly conducted on Monday, August 9, 2004 by the Jigawa State Independent Electoral Commission (JSIEC). We will not recognise it whatsoever. We reject it in its entirety because it is illegal and unconstitutional."
