Anxious voters were again disappointed on Saturday as the rerun election for the Enugu South Urban State Constituency failed to hold.
Recall that the Labour Party, LP, candidate for the State House of Assembly Constituency, Mr. Bright Ngene was declared winner of the March 18, 2023, House of Assembly election and was sworn-in, but the election was nullified by the court for being inconclusive.
This is the third attempt to hold the rerun.
As early as 7 am, voters had clustered in the affected polling units but no official of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, showed up.
The LP, candidate for the election, Mr Ngene, who was at the polling centre, expressed sadness over the development.
He said there was no information available to him and his party that the election would not hold.
Ngene, who said rumour was flying that the election has been postponed, cautioned that the INEC was a creation of the constitution and should act in accordance with the laws.
He said postponement of an election should follow due process and parties communicated.
However, when journalists reached out to the Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC, in charge of Enugu State, Dr Chukwuemeka Chukwu, he confirmed that the election had been postponed.
“We have cancelled the exercise, that was on Wednesday. We made a press release to inform them that it would not hold,” he said.
Asked whether a new date has been fixed, he answered “no date yet; we hope that the commission will come up with a date any time soon.”
Also recall that this is the third time the court-ordered rerun would suffer a glitch.
The REC in charge of Anambra State was drafted to conduct the election the last time following the suspension of the Enugu REC.
However, midway into voting, some thugs stormed the voting areas and destroyed voting materials.
This necessitated the re-scheduling of the election for today, Saturday, June 8, 2027.
When contacted to know if the shift was communicated to his party, the LP Chairman in Enugu, Barr Casmir Agbo declined comment.
“Go and ask INEC, direct your question to INEC. I decline comment,” he said.
On his part, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, candidate for the election, Hon Sam Ngene said the postponement of the exercise was duly communicated to his party.