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Tag: election

  • Delta state election: FRSC advises motorists on designated routes

    The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) has urged motorists to ply designated routes following restriction on vehicular movement during Saturday’s council polls in Delta.

    The information was provided in a statement by the spokesperson of the Corps, Mr Bisi Kazeem, in Abuja.

    According to Kazeem, elections is being held in 25 Local Government Areas of Delta State.

    “There will be restrictions on vehicular movement from 6:00hrs to 15:00hrs.

    “The roads will be closed at the boundaries between Edo and Delta States as well as between Delta and Anambra States respectively from 6:00hrs till 15:00hrs.

    “Motorists from Edo axis are advised to go through Warri- East West roads to Port Harcourt to Anambra.

    “Similarly, motorists from Anambra are advised to go through Enugu to Ajaokuta to Okene to Akure to Ibadan,” he said.

     

  • Delta state election: Electoral commission returns 57 PDP councillors unopposed

    The Delta State Independent Electoral Commission (DSIEC) has returned unopposed 57 councilors of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) ahead of tomorrow’s local government elections in the state.

    Chairman of DSIEC, Chief Mike Ogbodu, in a press statement, said the 57 PDP councilors are being returned unopposed as no other candidates are in contention with them.

    Ogbodu listed ward 4 in Isoko South; wards 5, 9, 10, 16, 18 in Uvwie; wards 1, 3, 6, 11, 18 in Warri North and wards 2, 9, 10, 11, 16, 17 in Warri South as among those whose councilors are returned unopposed.

    Others are:

    The following list contains the names of the councilors returned unopposed by the DSIEC ahead of the January 6, 2018 election in the state.

    A DSIEC release declaring candidates returned unopposed

     

  • George Weah’s presidential election victory speech

    Liberia’s President-elect, George Weah, at a news conference in Monrovia on Saturday has delivered his presidential election victory speech.

    Distinguished ladies and gentlemen

    Madam Jewel Howard-Taylor, Vice President-elect of the Republic of Liberia

    Fellow compatriots

    Today is a day to give thanks. Let us begin by lifting our eyes to heaven to thank God Almighty for the wonderful blessings He has bestowed upon beloved our country. It was God who inspired the people of Liberia to vote change to believe that with this change will come the hope of … in a most prosperous Liberia future. I thank God that among so many presidential candidates, I was chosen to be the 24th President of the Republic of Liberia.

    I am truly blessed and humbled by this divine favour. I thank my darling wife, Clar Weah, and my family who have stood by me over the years, especially in the last 13 years of political struggle. Through the darkest moments of this struggle, my wife and children have remained my pillar of strength. I would not have been able to do this without their untiring support and advice.

    I cannot summon the words to thank the people of Liberia who have made this historic day possible. What the people of Liberia have delivered for the country cannot even be described in words. So, I will ask Liberians here and those throughout the country under the sound of my voice to thank the Liberian people by clapping for one minute.

    I thank you for joining me to celebrate the Liberian people. They are the true heroes and heroine of this victory. Let me also thank the leadership, partisans, supporters and sympathisers of the Coalition we say a big thank you, with special thanks and appreciation going to the Honourable Senator of Nimba County, Prince Yormie Johnson. To the leadership and partisans of the Liberia People Democratic Party, we say thank you. To the leadership and partisans of the National Patriotic Party (NPP) we say thank you, and of course to our own, Congress for Democratic Change, we say a resounding thank you.

    CDCians have sustained the struggle over the years, and without you this victory would not be possible. Two days ago, the world watched me cry. I did not cry because I won. I cried because of the many partisans who lost their lives in the struggle for change. They will never be forgotten. Please join me in a moment of silence in memory of the fallen heroes of our revolutionary struggle.

    We truly thank all Liberians especially the women of Liberia who stood with us in the battle. For that I can truly that the best way to celebrate all Liberians is to improve their lives through the instrument of pro-poor public governance. I declare publicly today that transforming the lives of all Liberians is a singular mission and focus of my presidency.

    Over the next few days, we will assemble the government committed to fighting for the ideas that have inspired our campaign, and dedicated to delivering for the Liberian people. Those chosen to serve will and must be dedicated to the ideas of grassroots, social transformation. Person looking to cheat the Liberian people thorough the menace of corruption will have no place in my administration. We will build on the institutional gains under Madam Sirleeaf to improve the lives of our people. We will build a new institution where necessary to protect rights and engender inclusion among all our people.

    To our Diaspora Liberians, we say come home. This is a new dispensation. We need your skills, your ideas, your expertise and talents so that together we will build our common patrimony. To our development partners we say a big thank you for the support you have provided over the last 12 years. As we embark upon this transition, we call for renewal and strengthening of this partnership. We know that aid flows have declined in the last few years. In our view this decline is not good for the current transition – at least in the short term. While we work to grow the Liberian economy and expand our revenue base, medium term aid would be needed to support projects that would be critical to our long term growth.

    To investors we say Liberia is open and ready for business. Over the long term, private investment will be our key strategy to delivering transformation. We will work to relax constraints to private investment; strengthen the business, legal and regulatory environment, and protect business profits.

    Fellow partisans, I received a concession call from His Excellency Vice President Joseph Nyumah Boakai. I thanked him and said that in the interest of our people, we will work together. He is a statesman and also my neighbour. If I have to walk over to greet and get advice from him, I will. That is what neighbours are for.

    To other political parties, we are not enemies. We welcome you with open arms as we all strive to build our country. This election was a contest in ideas, and not a clash of political personalities. Our ideas have prevailed but that does not mean you do not have a contribution to make. We need to bring our country together to secure our peace and work harder towards national unity and development.

    To the iron lady of African, President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, we say thank you for the peaceful transfer of power that is about to take place. Yours is a legacy in democratic empowerment, and we promise to follow your footsteps in protecting the rights of Liberians and providing even greater freedom. We will build on the foundation you have laid to achieve more for all of our people. Your job is not yet done, Madam President, as we will continue to count on you to strengthen our outreach to both development partner and investors, all in the direction of moving our country forward.

    Let us all work hard to build our country; only then will the creed in our national anthem ring true:

    In union strong success is sure

    With God above

    Our rights to prove

    We will o’er all prevail

    Thank you

     

  • INEC, CBN inaugurates committee on election logistics management

    INEC, CBN inaugurates committee on election logistics management

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) have inaugurated a committee to work out modalities for collaboration on key aspects of election logistics management.

    Mr Aliyu Bello, the commission’s Deputy Director, Voter Education and Publicity said this in a statement on Thursday in Abuja.

    He said the decision to set up the committee was taken when INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu visited the CBN headquarters, Abuja on Wednesday.

    Bello said nine INEC National Commissioners and the Secretary to the Commission were part of the chairman’s team during the visit.

    He said the committee comprised two CBN Directors and the Secretary to the commission.

    According to him, the committee is to discuss the requirements for the printing, storage and transportation of sensitive election materials and their disposal thereafter.

    Bello quoted the INEC chairman as commending CBN for the timely production of the commission’s sensitive election materials, especially those used for the recent Anambra governorship election and the by-election in Borno.

    Yakubu also expressed appreciation to the Bank for providing sufficient security for all sensitive election materials.

    He canvassed for the Bank’s continued support in the effective management of electoral logistics involving transportation and storage of sensitive election materials

    Yakubu, however, drew CBN’s attention to the huge volumes of unused and obsolete sensitive election materials lying in different parts of the country.

    He appealed to the CBN governor to assist INEC with the incineration of such materials to create space for the storage of new ones.

    The CBN Governor, Mr Godwin Emefele, also expressed appreciation for the visit and pledged to support the commission on identified focal areas.

  • #KenyaDecides: ‘There won’t be peace for your government,’ Odinga tells Kenyatta

    #KenyaDecides: ‘There won’t be peace for your government,’ Odinga tells Kenyatta

    Kenya’s opposition leader Raila Odinga on Tuesday rejected outright the result of last week’s “sham” election, vowing to fight on after the protest-hit poll that handed President Uhuru Kenyatta a landslide win.

    “This election must not stand. If allowed to stand, it will make a complete mockery of elections,” he said in his first remarks on Thursday’s presidential re-run, which his supporters boycotted en masse.

    Without change, “elections will become coronation rituals,” Odinga warned.

    The vote, which saw Kenyatta winning with 98 percent of the votes cast, was the chaotic climax of two months of political drama and acrimony triggered by the Supreme Court’s overturning of an initial August poll over widespread irregularities.

    But Odinga did not say whether he would once again petition the Supreme Court to have the vote annulled, as he did back in August.

    He spelt out a campaign of non-violent protest and disobedience that would ensure the government had “no peace” so long as there was no change.

    The remarks are likely to extend the political uncertainty that has paralysed the country since September 1.

    Despite his successful bid to throw out the results of the August election, Odinga withdrew from the re-run some two weeks beforehand, citing concerns the new vote would be neither free nor fair.

    Last week, the 72-year-old leader pledged to transform his National Super Alliance (NASA) coalition into “a resistance movement” that would spearhead a campaign of “civil disobedience.”

    On Tuesday, he laid out plans for a programme of “vigorous” political action including “economic boycotts, peaceful processions, picketing and other legitimate protests.”

    “If there is no justice for the people, let there be no peace for the government,” he declared.

     

  • Liberia’s ruling party accuses President Johnson-Sirleaf of interfering with election

    Liberia’s Unity Party (UP) said it would back a legal challenge to the result, accusing President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf of interfering in the vote.

    Unity Party, Liberia’s ruling party candidate finished runner-up in the first round of this month’s presidential election.

    The party said in a statement that the October 10 poll, meant to usher in Liberia’s first democratic transition of power since 1944, was “characterised by massive systematic irregularities and fraud”.

    The statement, read to reporters by Unity Party Chairman Wilmont Paye, said Mrs. Johnson Sirleaf had acted inappropriately by meeting privately with elections magistrates before the vote.

    “Greed has resurfaced in its most callous form, sowing seeds of discord yet again with the intent of disrupting the fragile peace of Liberia,” the party said in its statement.

    Unity Party officials said they were supporting a legal challenge by Liberty Party of the third-place candidate Charles Brumskine, which has petitioned the elections commission for a re-run of the first round.

    The All Liberian Party of businessman Benoni Urey also said on Sunday it was backing the complaint.

    “It doesn’t mean we will not take part in the (run-off),” Augustine Ngafuan, Unity Party’s national campaign chairman, told Reuters.

    “We hope the court can rule before the run-off. If not, we will decide what next to do.”

    An official from the elections commission said it expected to hear the formal complaint on Monday.

    The commission’s findings can be appealed in the Supreme Court.

    At Johnson Sirleaf’s residence, where she was celebrating her 79th birthday, her spokesman Jerolinmek Piah told reporters that he would comment on the accusations later as he did not want to overshadow the festivities.

    International observers from the European Union, the Carter Centre and the National Democratic Institute have said they saw no major problems with the vote.

    Unity Party’s statement cements a falling out between Johnson-Sirleaf, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, and her party’s leadership after 12 years in power that saw the country consolidate a post-war peace but it also drew sharp criticism over alleged corruption and underdevelopment.

    Joseph Boakai has served as Johnson Sirleaf’s vice president since the president’s inauguration in 2006.

    However, Johnson-Sirleaf declined to endorse him and he distanced himself from the last administration.

    George Weah, a former soccer star in Europe, won the first round with 38.4 per cent of the vote to Boakai’s 28.8 per cent and has momentum heading into the run-off.

    On Thursday he picked up the endorsement of former warlord Prince Johnson, who won eight per cent of the vote in the first round.

    Morluba Morlu, a senior official from Weah’s CDC party, said those challenging the result were “opting to stage trouble”.

    “But no matter what they do … they cannot stop the election of Ambassador Weah,” he added.

    Weah has been a UNICEF goodwill ambassador.

     

     

     

    Reuters/NAN

  • Kenyan Presidential Re-run: Election turnout below 35 per cent – Commission

    Results of Kenya’s presidential election re-run started to trickle in on Friday, with early estimates of the turnout at below 35 percent.

    With nearly all followers of opposition leader Raila Odinga heeding the veteran’s call for a boycott, Kenyatta’s victory is not in question.

    The first election, in August, was annulled by the courts because of procedural irregularities, denying Kenyatta a simple victory over his long-term political rival.

    Voting on Thursday was marred by skirmishes between police and stone-throwing opposition supporters, who prevented polling stations from opening in four pro-Odinga counties, forcing election officials to postpone the exercise by 48 hours.

    The Kenyan Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) said more than one in 10 polling stations failed to open.

    IEBC chairman, Wafula Chebukati, Tweeted overnight that 6.55 million ballots had been cast – just 34.5 percent of registered voters.

    By contrast, turnout in the August election was 80 percent.

    The outcome is being closely watched across East Africa, which relies on Kenya as a trade and logistics hub, and in the West, which considers Nairobi a bulwark against Islamist militancy in Somalia and conflict in South Sudan and Burundi.

    In the western city of Kisumu, police used tear gas and fired live rounds over the heads of stone-throwing youths.

    A nurse said gunfire killed one protester and wounded three.

    In Homa Bay county next door, police said they shot dead one protester and injured another.

    There were similar scenes in Kibera and Mathare, two volatile Nairobi slums.

    At least one person was shot in the leg, a Red Cross official said, and a church was fire-bombed.

    Around 50 people have been killed, mostly by security forces, since the original Aug. 8 vote, raising fears of sustained violence only a decade after 1,200 people were killed in serious ethnic fighting triggered by another disputed vote.

    Legal challenges to the re-run are expected. If they fail to provide a clear path out of the crisis, including an order for another re-run, many Kenyans are fearing protracted political stalemate between the Uhuru Kenyatta and Odinga camps.

    “Unless the courts annul the election, Kenyatta will move forward without a clear mandate and Odinga will pursue a protest strategy whose chances of success in the circumstances are not very high,” said International Crisis Group analyst Murithi Mutiga.

     

     

    Reuters/NAN

  • Kenya election: Voting commences in re-run amid tightened security

    Voting has commenced in Kenya amid tight security in a re-run of the presidential election, which is being boycotted by the main opposition.

    “Police have clashed with opposition supporters, some of whom have been blocking access to polling stations.” BBC reports

     

    Recall that President Uhuru Kenyatta was declared the winner in an August vote, but it is being held again over “irregularities”.

    Kenya’s Supreme Court took the unprecedented decision to annul the August presidential election and demand a re-run in September citing “irregularities and illegalities”.

    Chief Justice David Maraga said the election had not been “conducted in accordance with the constitution” and declared it “invalid, null and void”.

    Mr Kenyatta is seeking a second term while his counterpart, opposition leader Raila Odinga has pulled out of the contest.

    About 70 people have been killed in violence since Mr Kenyatta was declared the winner in August’s election.

    Mr Odinga had wanted the repeat ballot to be held at a later date, but a bid to delay the election re-run fell apart after only two of seven Supreme Court judges attended a hearing on Wednesday.

    One judge, Deputy Chief Justice Philomena Mwilu, failed to appear after her bodyguard was shot and wounded by unknown gunmen on Tuesday.

  • PDP chairmanship: I can’t influence process of election – Makarfi

    PDP chairmanship: I can’t influence process of election – Makarfi

    The chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, caretaker committee, Ahmed Makarfi, has said he doesn’t have the sole power to decide who becomes the party’s chairman.

    Makarfi explained that only the party’s National Executive Committee, NEC, and convention can make such decision.

    Makarfi was responding to claims that he was trying to influence the outcome of the contest for the chairmanship position which will take place at the party’s convention slated for December.

    Mr. Makarfi, who said this while addressing journalists at the party’s secretariat in Abuja ahead of a peace parley between the National Caretaker Committee, and aspirants for the top slot, said only the best candidate would emerge from the contest.

    “It is still up to NEC to decide, in addition to whatever the convention decides.

    “So far, the decision on who can contest as chairman has been made. If today or tomorrow any other decision of the party is made, we’ll implement that decision,” Mr. Makarfi said.

    “I want to make one thing categorically clear about unfair insinuations. Some people think that I, as the chairman of the caretaker committee should assume the power that I don’t have.

    “We have no power beyond the convention and I want to remind all of us, the only thing the party did was to zone positions and as chairman or caretaker committee, you cannot go beyond that”, he added.

    Also addressing the aspirants, he said the party leadership was putting measures in place to ensure a peaceful convention and harmony between the regions.

    “We have been calling on the north and south to put themselves together.

    ‘‘Whether north or south, we must subject ourselves to what the NEC decides in respect to the matters before us in the leadup to the elective convention.

    “We said that we should meet with you (aspirants) and discuss with you and hear from you to know your contribution to making proper preparation for the convention.’’

    Also, Bode George, a former military governor of Ondo state who spoke with journalists, said with the preparations put in place by the party, only the best candidate can emerge winner at the end.

    “We had a very useful meeting with the NCC. We agreed that we will remain civil, educate our followers because it is a family contest and not a matter of life and death.

    “We have agreed and you can see us now holding our hands. There is no quarrel, let the best man win. That is the spirit of the party, that is the spirit we are sending to the public because we want to win the minds and hearts of the public that we are better managers.

    “If we can manage our party and our states, we will be able to manage this country,’’ Mr. George said.

    When asked if the candidates were considering agreeing on a consensus candidate as suggested recently by the Ekiti state governor, Ayodele Fayose, Mr. George said they all agreed ‘‘to work as a team.’’

    “Whatever it is, whether consensus or not, we are moving together as a team. The party is bigger than any individual. Nobody will be aggrieved,” he said.

    Aspirants for the position present at the meeting include DAAR Communication boss, Raymond Dokpesi; former Ogun state governor, Gbenga Daniel; former education minister, Tunde Adeniran; former Lagos state governorship aspirant, Jimi Agbaje; former Oyo state governor, Rasheed Ladoja, and erstwhile acting chairman, PDP, Uche Secondus.

  • Kenya election board CEO, Ezra Chiloba rejected by opposition goes on leave

    Ezra Chiloba, Kenyan Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) said on Friday he was taking three weeks of leave.

    Opposition demanded that Chiloba must be fired before a repeat presidential election scheduled for Oct. 26,

    The first presidential vote in August, which gave victory to Kenyatta, was annulled because of procedural irregularities.

    Chiloba said he had taken a personal decision to take leave in light of the opposition’s demands, without giving more details.

    He said all arrangements were in place for the election, as ordered by the Supreme Court.

    “This is the first time I‘m taking leave since my son was born. He turns two years (old) in two weeks’ time,” he told Reuters.

    The court annulled the first election, held in August and in which incumbent Uhuru Kenyatta was declared winner, over procedural irregularities.

    The opposition, led by Raila Odinga, has said it will boycott the re-run unless several demands, including the sacking of Chiloba, are met.

    Odinga met the chairman of the IEBC board, Wafula Chebukati, on Thursday and later told reporters that if there were serious consultations and serious reforms, the opposition could review its boycott.

    The board has said the election will go ahead and Kenyatta, has insisted the vote must be held.

    On Thursday, the president snubbed an invitation to meet Chebukati, saying he would instead spend the time campaigning.