Lawrence Nwimo, Awka
Some political parties have threatened to boycott the local government election scheduled to take place in Anambra State on September 28, 2024.
This came after major parties boycotted stakeholders meeting convened by the Anambra State Independent Electoral Commission (ANSIEC) in Awka, Thursday.
The political parties that boycotted the stakeholders’ meeting with ANSIEC were the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), All Progressives Congress (APC), Labour Party (LP) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
It was only the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Action Alliance (AA) and an unidentified group led by factional APGA state Chairman, Ifeatu Obi-Okoye, that attended the meeting.
Chief Edozie Njoku-led faction of the APGA leadership recently recognised by court and INEC was also absent at the meeting.
Addressing journalists, Chairman of APC in the state, Chief Basil Ejidike, who spoke on the reason for the boycott said, “You will hear from us after the meeting tomorrow.
“We are going to have a meeting of Inter Party Advisory Committee, IPAC, made up of all the political parties and we are working together.
“What they are planning to do is unacceptable to us the political parties. They have already failed from the beginning because there must be a level playing ground for everybody.
“You cannot continue changing the goal post while the game is on. So you will hear from us after the meeting and it has to be a collective thing,” he stated.
The recent development shows that major political parties including APGA may kick against the illegal amendment of the ANSIEC law which, as alleged, was done to rig the election and stop the legitimate political party leadership from submitting the list of its candidates to ANSIEC.