The Chairman of the Kaduna State Independent Electoral Commission, KADSIECOM, Saratu Dikko-Audu, has said that the state’s May 12 Local Government elections will hold as scheduled.
The chairperson stated this in reaction to speculations the election would not hold following a fire incident that gutted the electoral body’s offices on Saturday.
Mrs Dikko-Audu, who convened an emergency meeting between the officials of KADSIECOM and stakeholders including chairmen and secretaries of political parties, expressed optimism that the election will hold as scheduled.
She said: “By God’s grace elections will hold as scheduled on May 12. We advertised we would conduct with smart card and Electronic Voting Machine, EVM, but INEC has informed that they can’t make the smart card readers available to us.
“It is a great day for the commission, though we lost a lot of materials on the second floor of the building due to fire outbreak, we thanked God no life was lost.
“We had to take stock of what we lost in the fire outbreak, we concluded that last night and are confident we have enough machines to conduct our elections.
“We gathered you to know which way to go. We want to remind you that the nomination forms your candidates filled are intact, however, we lost some affidavits but we would give new forms for screening.”
The chairman said that in view of all that happened, the screening of candidates which was to start on Tuesday, April 24, would commence on Wednesday, April 25, with those who were billed for the first day, rescheduled for a day after the last set.
Assuring of transparency during the polls, she said that the machines would print a summary sheet of the votes cast.
“We appeal to your agents to be there to the end till it is transmitted.
“We have situation room in our offices and we are assuring you there is no way anybody can tamper with the results.
“We are going to use the voters’ register and PVC, once confirmed, they vote.
“Once they have voted, they would leave the premises. Make sure you have agents so that the votes of your party are protected.
“We want to appeal to you to encourage your members and supporters to be peaceful. Elections in a democracy are about the choice of people. Let us respect the rights of the people,” she explained.
She charged security agents to enforce the restriction of movement on the Election Day so that people could move freely to their polling booths.
