Gbenro Adesina/Ibadan
The media officer, Oyo State Independent Electoral Commission, OYSIEC, Mr Cosmos Oni said two international observers: European Union, EU, and International Foundation of Electoral System, IFES, and no fewer than 10 domestic observers are already in the state to observer the local government election holding today.
The last council election in the state was held 11 years ago during the administration of Senator Rashidi Ladoja.
The Alao Akala administration had appointed chairmen to run the affairs of the local government without councillors.
Governor Abiola Ajimobi, who also followed the path of his predecessor in the local government administration, is organising the council election barely a year to the end of his two term administration.
The election would be conducted into the already gazetted 33 local government, LGs and the 35 Local Council Development Areas, LCDA recently created by the Governor Abiola Ajimobi led administration.
Speaking at a pre-election press conference organised by the Forum of Civil Society Organisation in Nigeria at the Commission headquarters, Ibadan, Oni stated that nothing less than 12 political parties would participate in the election. Among the participating parties are: the Progressive Peoples Alliance, PPA, Unity Democratic Party, UDP, African Peoples Alliance, APA, People for Democratic Change, PDC, Young Political Party, YPP, Action Democratic Party, ADP, and Justice Must Prevail Party, JMPP.
He noted that the simple voting pattern adopted by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, where voters list would be pasted, confirmed and voted would be adopted for the election pointing out that card reader would not be used.
He said further that 4,783 polling booths and 5,260 voting units have been created for the purpose of the election adding that over 10,000 ad-hoc staff which has been trained by both local and international experts has been employed for the conduct of the polls.
Also speaking at the forum, the Team leader of the forum, Mrs. Yemisi Ige, who spoke on behalf of the 12 election monitoring teams, frowned at the opposition political parties in boycotting elections organized by the ruling party in the state of the country and urged the participating political parties and individuals to display maturity and the spirit of sportsmanship during and after the election.