The meeting of the Niger State Independent Electoral Commission (SIEC) and registered political parties, on Thursday, over the plan to postpone the local government elections scheduled for November 7 ended in a deadlock.
The meeting, which was at the instance of Niger State SIEC, was attended by 25 of the registered political parties operating in the state and came almost 24 hours after Governor Abubakar Sani Bello had told a stakeholder-meeting, at the Doko Hotel, in Minna, that the election “will go ahead as planned.”
Daily Times learnt that immediately the meeting commenced at SIEC’s headquarters, its Chairman, Alhaji Ibrahim Danlami, told the gathering that the major issue for discussion was the plan to postpone the election for lack of funds.
Danlami also said that the elections had to be postponed to January 16, 2016, because the card readers needed for the conduct of the elections were not available.
He emphasised that so far government had released only 40% of the needed funds for the election to the commission, while the card readers were still at various election petition tribunals serving as exhibits.
source-->Dailytimes.com.ng