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By Okechukwu Onuegbu
A foremost Citizens advocacy group, Anambra Civil Society Network (ACSONet) has implored Political Parties and other patriotic Stakeholders to key into the recently released timetable by Anambra State Independent Electoral Commission (ANSIEC), and fully participate in the entire processes.
Leader of the group, Prince Chris Azor made the statement while reacting to inquiries from newsmen over the forthcoming local elections in the State.
According to the human rights advocate who doubles as the Coordinator of Election Observers for the exercise, "The forthcoming scheduled local government election is a welcome development. We must all recall the sustained advocacy by sundry Stakeholders that culminated in this present milestone.
" Political Parties and sundry stakeholders should realize that there's no hundred percent perfect election anywhere in the world. I have always said that an imperfect election is better than no elections at all. The local councils have lost over ten years of democractic governance. We therefore, appeal to the Political Parties to take advantage of this opportunity and take back our grassroots for sustainable development."
Comrade Azor further expressed the commitment of credible Civil Society Organizations in partnership with Anambra State Independent Electoral Commission (ANSIEC) to observe the electoral process in order to ensure integrity and credibility of the entire exercise.
Recall that a recent Supreme Court judgment ordered the State governments to stop receiving funds accruing to local governments which implied that States without democratically elected local government councils would not receive allocations meant for local governments from the Federation Account.
This therefore, means that if a State government fails to conduct elections to establish democratically elected local government councils, it will forfeit the local government allocations from the Federation Account.
With such lacuna, financial obligations of the State like, salaries and wages of primary school teachers, primary healthcare workers, local government staff, infrastructure/Capital expenditure, among others might pose a humongous challenge, going forward.
In a swift response, the Anambra State Independent Electoral Commission (ASIEC) had announced September 28, 2024, as the date for conduct of local government council elections in the state.
In a statement issued by the Chief Electoral Officer of the State, Mrs. Genevieve Osakwe, urged all registered political parties and the general public to take note of the date.
She also encouraged all registered Political Parties to visit the headquarters of the Anambra State Independent Electoral Commission in Awka from Wednesday, August 14, 2024, for detailed information.
The last local government council elections in Anambra State were held in January 2014, a period of over ten years.