Decries INEC non-inclusion of party logo in ballot papers
From Aloysius Attah, Onitsha
Senate candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) for Anambra Central in the National Assembly elections Princess Helen Mbakwe has congratulated the winner, Senator Victor Umeh, on his victory in the just concluded polls.
Princess Mbakwe, in a chat with reporters in Abatete community, Idemili North, on Monday, described the election a very keenly contested exercise even as she described Umeh’s victory as a “beneficiary of the voters’ ‘vote Labour all thru’ slogan.
The royal, who gave a post mortem of the National Assembly election in Anambra and the central zone, in particular, decried a situation where INEC failed to include some party logos in the ballot papers .
She said she was already cruising to victory by her own calculations based on the feedback she got in the field during campaigns but that feat was truncated when she began to get calls from voters across different polling units that NNPP party logo was missing in the ballot papers.
“Before now, I sensitised my supporters on what they should look out for in the ballot papers but to our surprise, the party logo was missing in most ballot papers to the extent that some were moved to vote for YPP since they couldn’t see the NNPP logo. They disenfranchised my party totally and I don’t know why they had to do that. Under normal circumstances, INEC is supposed to show all party agents the voting materials for proper inspection before deploying to the field but they didn’t do that,” Princess Mbakwe stated.
“This is also why I’m of the opinion that the new Nigeria we are looking for, a lot of things should be done differently. You can’t campaign all along as a person and just few days to the election, you begin to educate them again on the colour and logo of the party etc. We are used to people here and not logos so the best bet is to have the party and faces of those vying under those parties in the ballot papers”
“A big congrats to the winner Senator Victor Umeh. It was a very keen contest. And I wish him all the best I decry INEC’s disenfranchisement of my Party NNPP by not including us on the Ballot Paper . The Logo on the Ballot Paper is not that of NNPP plus the name of the party was omitted. This Election process is a sorry example of what Election should be. Which way Nigeria?,” she said.