{"id":9008,"date":"2013-08-25T19:40:16","date_gmt":"2013-08-25T19:40:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/disnaija.com\/nigerian-newspapers\/electoral-body-disqualifies-apc-from-c-river-lg-poll\/"},"modified":"2013-08-25T19:40:16","modified_gmt":"2013-08-25T19:40:16","slug":"electoral-body-disqualifies-apc-from-c-river-lg-poll","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/disnaija.com\/electoral-body-disqualifies-apc-from-c-river-lg-poll\/","title":{"rendered":"Electoral body disqualifies APC from C\u2019 River LG poll"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Cross River State Independent Electoral Commission has said the All Progressives Congress is not qualified to field candidates for the September 21 local government elections in the state.<\/p>\n

Chairman of CROSIEC, Mr. Patrick Otu, stated this on Friday after a meeting held at the commission\u2019s office in Calabar with all registered political parties in the state as part of preparations for the exercise.<\/p>\n

The chairman of the state electoral body said the commission took the decision after considering all legal implications and to forestall complicity.<\/p>\n

The electoral law, he noted, stipulated that \u201cif parties merge, that party can only stand election after 90 days\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe commission cannot postpone the election because of a newly registered party. By September 21 when the local government elections will take place, the stipulated 90-day period would not have been met by the APC in the state. Therefore, no candidate can be fielded to run on the platform of the APC.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything about election is law and nothing can be done outside the law. The former parties that merged to form APC are by law dead. What emerged will have to pay the price as no law covers what you were before the merger. By law, APC is disqualified from fielding candidates for both the chairmanship and the councillorship positions in the forthcoming elections\u201d.<\/p>\n

Following the emergence of APC, the defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party, Consensus for Progressive Change and Action Congress of Nigeria, were unable to harmonise their list of candidates.<\/p>\n

\u00a0A representative of the APC, Mr. Ayei Akpang, who claimed to be representing one of the party\u2019s state leaders, appealed for an extension but the CROSIEC boss noted that there were lawful conditions for postponing or extending time for election, which did\u00a0 not include new registration.<\/p>\n

Otu said, \u201cThere is no state of emergency in the state that would warrant an extension of time. When in 2004 we had a state of emergency because of the political situation, then it was understood. Election timetable is very important, especially to any election management body.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0The meeting was attended by representatives of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party led by the state Chairman, John Okon, representatives of PPA, NCN and the APC.<\/p>\n

\u00a0It was also gathered that only the PDP and PPA had fielded candidates for he 18 chairmanship and 196 councillorship positions.<\/p>\n

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Posted in Nigerian Newspapers. <\/a>A DisNaija.Com<\/a> network.<\/p>\n

Source: Punch Newspaper<\/p>\n

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