This was contained in a statement issued by the National Publicity Secretary, Obiora Ifoh, in Abuja, on Sunday.

 

Labour Party has rejected the just concluded Edo State Local Government Election held on Saturday as announced by the State Independent Electoral Commission.

 

The election was rejected by Comrade Julius Abure, Chairman of the party.

 

The LP condemned the election as conducted by the Edo SIEC, describing it as another sad testimony of how low a state government can descend in attempting to rubbish the gains of democracy.

 

This was contained in a statement issued by the National Publicity Secretary, Obiora Ifoh, in Abuja, on Sunday.

 

Ifoh quoted Abure as saying that democracy can only succeed when the authorities allow the votes of the people to count and the choice of the voters respected.

 

He said, “Reports from our agents across most of the polling units in the state confirmed that there were deliberate effort by the EDSIEC to frustrate voters by ensuring that the electoral officers either came late to the polling units or didn’t show up at all.

“In few places where the election held, insufficient ballot papers were brought with no single result sheet.

“But at the end of the day, results were churned out with the candidates of the People’s Democratic Party returning elected.”

 

He further said, “Before the election, credible information reached us that the state government had no intention of conducting any election, let alone a credible one.

“The EDSIEC we gathered simply took instructions from the government house and announced an already prepared list as winners of the election.