David-Chyddy Eleke in Awka
Orient Foundation, a foremost election monitoring group in the Southeast has lamented the dearth of issue-based campaigns among the governorship candidates of the Anambra State governorship election.
The group in a statement signed by Director of Communications, Mr. Victor Agusiobo, and made available to THISDAY in Awka said the campaigns have moved from issue based campaigns to regular attacks on persons.
It said such was not the hallmark of robust politicking, while calling on the candidates to desist from such.
The group said it hold INEC in high trust and believes in their competence and professionalism to deliver on its promise of a credible election in the state, saying anything short of it in its estimation is a recipe for anarchy and lawlessness.
It said: “It is only when people feel and sense equity, impartiality and fairness of the umpire that they can show faith in the governance of the state.
“It is our deep-seated belief that a free, fair and credible election where votes count, are counted and accounted for is a compelling and irreducible necessity for any democracy worth the name.
“The organisation avows that the truth in the statement; no man is good enough to rule another without the others consent, remains the ultimate essence and meaning of democratic governance.
“Any election that tries, albeit remotely, to shortchange the people in whatever shape or form destroys the basis of participatory democracy, and therefore must be resisted.
“We enjoin the electorate to see the voter’s card as a priceless symbol and key to being partakers and having their say in how government runs. The voter’s card must therefore be well guarded since it is about the only legitimate instrument with which the owner can elect his own statesman or tyrant.”
It continued that it finds it totally embarrassing the accusation and counter accusation by some political parties that some truckloads of election sensitive materials have been found in private hands, but added that the development was still yet to be confirmed.
