3rd November, 2013
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has won all the 17 chairmanship and 260 councillorship seats in the local government elections held in the eastern Nigerian state of Enugu on Saturday.
Announcing the results on Sunday in Enugu, Dr Boniface Eneh, the Chairman of the Enugu State Independent Electoral Commission (ENSIEC) said all the chairmanship candidates were returned unopposed.
He said that their elections were confirmed by the electorate through a `Yes or No’ electoral voting system, conducted in line with ENSIEC law.
The chairman said the councillorship election was contested in 10 of the 260 wards in four LGAs including Awgu, Nkanu West and Udi with one ward each.
He said that Isiuzo council had the highest number of contestants in seven of the 20 wards that made up the area.
Eneh explained that there was no ballot for unopposed candidates as they were automatically elected in line with the ENSIEC law.
The chairman said the concillorship election recorded 273 voided votes, while four political parties including the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), All Progressives Congress (APC), African Liberation Party and the PDP participated in the poll.
He expressed dismay at the apathy witnessed in the elections and urged the electorate to always come out and vote during elections as part of their civil responsibility.
Some of the observers, who monitored the elections, also decried the low turnout of voters in the elections, describing it as `undemocratic’.
They include Mr Amechi Nnoli of the Social Equality, Justice and Peace Organisation and Mr Chuks Udeh of the Youth and Media Network.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the council election was the fourth and the last to be conducted under Gov. Sullivan Chime before his handing over in 2015.