The Enugu State Independent Electoral Commission (ENSIEC) has advised political party candidates and their supporters to avoid attacks on personality as the electioneering campaign for the Enugu State Local Government poll gathers momentum.
The Executive Chairman of ENSIEC, Prof. Christian Ngwu, disclosed this on Saturday in Enugu. Ngwu spoke on the kind of electioneering campaign meant to ensure peace, inclusiveness and mass participation. He said that the commission anticipated a rancour-free campaign ahead of the Sept. 26 Local Council Polls in Enugu State.
“Go to the field (community and neighbourhood) and tell the people what you have for them and your plans to focus on issues that will better their lives and uplift them of inadequacies. We also want the electorate to ask them relevant questions on how they plan to carry out their campaign promises,” he said.
According to him, as a commission, we do not want personality and reputation attacks that result in political violence and bitter rancour’s.
“No one should heat up the polity with uncultured and abusive language that attacks individual candidates’ personalities. Let us do well to keep the campaigns civil and accommodating; making the welfare of the people, who are the electorate, the main focus,” he said.
It would be recalled that candidates from 11 political parties would be participating in the polls for 17 Chairmanship and 260 Councillorship positions in Enugu State. ENSIEC had concluded a train-the-trainer workshop for its officials, which included: 17 Electoral Officers (EOs) for each of the 17 council areas, 17 Assistant Electoral Officers, seven directors, five commissioners, and an administrative secretary.
