AMAECHI PERCY ONYEJEKWE
Awka
As Anambra prepares for November 8 Governorship Election in the state, women stakeholders have alleged pre-election disenfranchisement in the state.
Mrs. Ezeh Stella the leader of Umuechem Women For Good Governance stated this in an interview with Daily Champion in Awka on Friday.
Mrs. Ezeh said some communities in Anambra had been disenfranchised by natural disasters and had been allegedly abandoned to their fate by the state government, INEC and the political parties as the governorship election fast approches.
The woman leader noted that political parties had limited their campaigns to places accessible by road only and abandoned communities devasted by erosion in the state because those places could no longer be accessed by road as a result of erosion damage and destruction of the roads leading to them.
The woman who lamented that the affected places had INEC polling centres and units also said the affected places included Ogidi, Igbo-Ukwu, Nnewi Ichi in Nnewi and Amadunu in Nnobi among others.
Mrs. Ezeh who described the development as sad said the inability of political parties to carry out campaigns in the erosion affected communities, failure of the government to ameliorate the situation before the election amounts to abandonment, is a minus for APGA, and disenfranchisement, adding that it was also a clear message to the communities that they could not exercise their franchise on the election day.
Mrs. Ezeh urged INEC, APGA, APC, ADC, LP and PDP among other parties in the proposed election and Anambra State Government to take note of the abnormality.
“The political parties have not carried out campaigns in the erosion devasted communities. The Anambra State Government has also not done anything to ameliorate the situation.The message is clear. It is disenfranchisement due to natural disaster. The Political parties avoid the communities because they are no longer accessible by road. Amadunu is an example. And there are polling centres and units in those communities”, Mrs. Ezeh said
