OSUN POLL: PDP Wants To Rig Polls – APC

Osun State ruling party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), has cried foul, over a plan they uncovered involving an official of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) officials to rig the upcoming elections in the state.

INEC and PDP have come out and dismissed that there has ever been such a plan. According to APC, the plan involved an INEC IT staff handing over electoral register for the state to a special assistant to a top PDP national official.

The APC National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed in a recent statement, had said: "For those who may see this as outlandish, they should recall that an INEC official tampered with the voters register used during the last gubernatorial election in Anambra State to remove the names of many voters."

APC said that this might be one of the reasons INEC is delaying the issuing Permanent Voter’s Card (PVC) to registered voters, especially those who are APC members in the state.

"The truth is that the PDP knows it cannot win a free and fair election in Osun State. Everything so far points to the fact that our party will win by a landslide if the election is free, fair, credible and transparent. In fact, a highly-credible opinion poll carried out by the globally-recognized TNS-RMS shows that the APC leads among voters in the state by 73%, compared to a paltry 19% for the PDP,” it stated.

Apparently, stunned by the reality on the ground, as against the propaganda by the PDP, the party’s candidate, Iyiola Omisore, quickly conjured his own opinion poll, purportedly carried out by USAID, showing that he is ahead of the APC candidate and incumbent Governor Rauf Aregbesola.

"Fortunately, USAID has denied carrying out any opinion poll in Osun State, thus putting a lie to the PDP’s claim. There is no better indication of desperation than this," APC statement concluded.

INEC has always come under criticisms for not conducting credible elections across the country.

After the 21 June, 2014, governorship election in Ekiti state, the APC had accused the electoral body for not conducting a free and fair poll.

The ruling party in the state, whose candidate, Kayode Fayemi, lost to PDP's candidate, Ayodele Fayose, had complained of electoral irregularities before, during and after the elections.

The APC had since challenged the results of the election in court.

Source: Legit.ng