Mrs Ifeoma Azikiwe, the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) candidate for Anambra House of Assembly, Onitsha North Constituency 1, has commended the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for a smooth conduct of the by-election.
Azikiwe made the commendation at her Ward 4, polling unit 003 on Saturday in Onitsha.
According to her, the process has been fair, except for some isolated calls she got from her agents about issues in certain locations which she is yet to confirm as at the time of this report.
The APGA candidate also alleged that some electorate were disenfranchised because their voters cards were not accepted by INEC officials as a result of recent registration.
She explained that they were not disenfranchised as those were prospective voters for the November gubernatorial election in the state.
The APGA candidate clarified that such persons needed to give INEC time to integrate them into the data base.
She stated that people who transferred their cards and those that registered newly were going to be valid in November.
According to her, INEC has been doing very well in the ongoing by-election, saying, “I have not seen anybody, who complained, though I can’t tell for everywhere, it’s 166 polling units.
“There is no way I will get information about all the polling units, but the places I have seen so far, materials arrived very early.
“Accreditations took place along with it and I have solid hope that this exercise has been going on smoothly.
“There is also no issue of violence anywhere and I am hopeful of victory at the end of the exercise”, she said.