The Cross River Independent Electoral Commission (CROSIEC) has scheduled the state local government councils election for May 24, 2023.
CROSIEC said this in the guidelines and timetable for the election released by its chairman Dr Mike Ushie on Thursday in Calabar at a media briefing.
He stated that party primaries would hold from Oct. 1 to Oct 21, while collection and submission of candidates list would take place from Oct. 24 to Nov. 24.
“Nov. 28 to Dec. 2 is for the submission of nomination forms, while Dec. 27 to May 23, 2023, is for campaigns by political parties.
”The essence of the timetable is to attach timelines to what we are doing as regards the local council election,” Ushie said.
He said that the commission had met with all the political parties in the state to marshal plans for hitch-free conduct of the poll.
The chairman urged the general public to disregard claims that the commission lacked the legal right to conduct the poll.
“The law stipulates the tenure of every local government council and if the chairmen were just barely one year in office and you are conducting another election, questions would be asked.
“This is not so in this situation, as the tenure of the present chairmen will come to an end in June 2023, while the election would be on May 24, 2023.
“It is not when they leave office that we will now enthrone caretaker committees before electing new chairmen,” he said.
The chairman advised political parties to hit the ground running by letting the public know their aspirants rather than grumble after losing the election.
“We urge all political parties to go to the field and work, field your candidates, do your campaigns, sell your manifestoes.
”The people will vote for you, because the process will be open for everyone, nothing will be hidden.
“On whether Bimodal Voter Accreditation system (BVAS), will be used for the election, I can’t ascertain that for now.
”We will study the usage in the general election to see its efficacy. If it is okay for us, we will approach the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the machines,” he said.
NAN
