Election Timetable Is Template For Rigging – Gov Kwankwaso

Criticism has continued to trail the timetable for the 2015 general elections released by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). Opposition governor of Kano State Rabiu Kwankwaso has set the tone of the aversion of his colleagues to the timetable, describing it as a template by the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Presidency to rig the 2015 election with the connivance of INEC.

 INEC had, in a statement issued last Friday, disclosed that the presidential/National Assembly as well as governorship/state assembly elections will hold on February 14 and 28, 2015, respectively.


Although the APC is yet to take a position on the timetable, there are strong feelers that the party is considering to push for the conduct of the state assembly and governorship elections first before the national polls.

 It was unclear if the Kano governor’s position on the timetable was a sign of what to expect from the APC when it deliberates on the electoral timetable later in the week.

 But in a chat with a team of journalists in Abuja yesterday, Governor Kwankwaso said rather than holding the presidential election first, the arrangement should be bottom up. Moreover, he said, his leadership of the APC in Kano was incontrovertible, and the goal-post cannot be shifted for any reason.

 “I have never seen such an arrangement which tends to build from the top; it should be bottom up; that is the right thing for INEC to do in this circumstance. “Immediately the timetable was released on Friday, it was clear to all that the template for the rigging of the 2015 election has been set because one wonders why the presidential election has to come before other elections; it ought to come after all others must have been conducted.

 “For the avoidance of doubt, the intention is to ensure that there is a bandwagon effect after the presidential election must have been over; that is their plan but it has to be looked into,” Kwankwaso said. On the controversy surrounding the leadership of the APC in Kano, Kwankwaso expressed regrets that some persons were trying to lay claim to what was not arrogated to them. According to him, the issue of who is the leader of the APC in each state, particularly states under the party’s control, was not hidden.

 “The issue of who is the leader of any party in the states is not hidden; even while we were in the PDP, the governors were the leaders of the party just as the president is the leader of the party.

 “Even before we joined the APC, it was agreed by all, including those in contention for leadership, that the leader of the party in each of the states controlled by the party is the governor. “So when we joined, the same right and privileges were extended to us; there can’t be two sets of laws. But it is a surprise that some persons want the goal-post shifted in Kano,” the governor said. (leadership.ng)