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From Femi Folaranmi, Yenagoa
Ahead of the November 11 governorship in Bayelsa State, the British High Commission has declared its readiness to support free, fair, and credible elections.
The Political Secretary, British High Commission, Abuja, Hamish Tye stated this during a meeting with the governorship candidate of the Labour Party, Engr. Udengs Eradiri at his residence in Yenagoa, the state capital.
According to Tye his visit was to meet with the governorship candidates, get a better idea of the issues shaping the poll as well as better understanding of the manifestoes of each governorship candidate.
He said: “We have come to Bayelsa to meet with the governorship candidates and to get a better idea of the issues they are going to be contesting in the election and what the people are going to be voting on and to get a better idea of what each governorship candidate will like to do while in office.
“We don’t have any demands per say but our view is that the election should be peaceful and credible. We also discussed the idea of a peace accord and that will be followed up on.”
In his remarks, Eradiri, said his concerns about the election is the issue of vote-buying and plot to manipulate the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
According to him there is already vote-buying on display by the various appointments being dished out by the incumbent administration to lure the opposition, especially members of the LP.
He criticised the process for being deceitful noting that the appointments are geared towards extracting political support for re-election.
“For me the concerns that I raised and I keep raising are about vote buying which is already ongoing by appointments that are being dished out by the government of the day. They promised 17 members per polling unit, they are paying N100, 000 each.
“Some of them won’t even get a salary; it is just a show of desperation to use the people’s wealth to buy them. It is the responsibility of the government to appoint aides that will work for the progress of the state. Appointing them now, what happened all these three and half years, what has been happening to those positions?
“The other is the way and manner INEC has been reduced to a point where people who think they are in control have begun to talk about how they will influence postings in INEC, how they are going to write results. Those are the issues we are bringing to the international community to note these things”.
