Ondo gov election: Campaign begins July 21

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), on Thursday, said campaign for the Ondo State governorship election in the state will start on July 21, just as it said it had not banned political rallies in the state.The Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) of the commission in the state, Mr Akin Orebiyi, said this in Akure during a stakeholders meeting on the election.According to him, since the Electoral Law stipulates that campaign should not be held 90 days before the election, political parties will not be allowed to campaign before July 21 as the election had been scheduled to hold on October 20.He said the earlier order given by the commission was to the effect that campaign should not be held, adding that this did not ban political parties from holding meetings and rallies to declare their intention.The INEC commissioner, however, expressed the readiness of the commission to provide a level playing field for all political parties in the election, saying that INEC would be an unbiased umpire.Orebiyi said, 'we will remain an objective, impartial and unbiased umpire. We are to act like referees and referees do not play ball in a football match. We will keep our activities open and transparent.'The conduct of the election will be free, fair and credible, I can assure you of this and the commission will not tolerate any act that is capable of undermining the entire process.'He, however. appealed to politicians in the state not to heat up the polity by coming up with frivolous allegations, saying their campaigns should be issue-based rather than attack on personalities.Meanwhile, the stakeholders meeting agreed to forward the demand of the Muslim community in the state made by the Chief Imam of Akure, Alhaji Yayi Akorede, that the election date be shifted, to the INEC headquarters in Abuja for consideration.The Muslim body had called for a shift of the date because according to Akorede, 'the date is only a few days to the Id' el Kabir festival when a substantial part of the Muslim population would be in Saudi Arabia performing the holy pilgrimage.
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