Ahead of the much-expected local government elections, the Anambra State Independent Electoral Commission (ANSIEC) has recovered polling booths hidden away in some shrines and forests apparently used to perpetrate rigging by unknown persons during past elections in the state.

Speaking yesterday at the headquarters of Awka South local Government Area during the kick-off of the sensitisation programme for the October 5, 2013 local government polls, ANSIEC Acting Chairman, Chief Sylvester Okonkwo, described the development as worrisome.

The polling booths were discovered at Nteje in Oyi Local Government Area, the Marine area of Onitsha North and in Ogbaru Local Government Area.

Okonkwo assured that the polling booths would be relocated before the October 5 ballot, adding that there is no way women and Christians could vote in shines or evil forests.
“Such a thing cannot happen in Igbo land,” he stated.

The ANSIEC boss urged traditional rulers to assist the commission’s agents to look for good sites where the elections would take place in their domains.

He announced that the ban on political campaigns had been lifted and urged candidates and political parties for the election to kick-off their campaigns openly and in accordance with the law.

Okonkwo however called on those who lost their voter cards during last year’s flood disaster not to relent as they would be allowed to vote during the October 5 ballot, provided their names appeared in the INEC register.

On his part, the Coordinator of Movement for the Conduct of Local Government Elections, Comrade Osita Obi, commended ANSIEC for listening to the yearnings of the people by fixing a date for the election.

He called on aspirants to go to their wards and communities to continue their
sensitisation exercise in other to win the trust of the grass root which he said “holds the key.”

•Photo shows a typical shrine.