Political parties that won elections in Edo also protested outcome’ – REC

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Political parties that won elections in Edo also protested outcome’ – REC

THE Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) of Edo State, Obo Effanga said the electoral body was shocked at the attitude of the “big” political parties in Edo state which he said were the ones that also protested against the outcome of the eras of the areas they did not win in the last general elections in the state.

Effanga, therefore, charged politicians to always learn to accept failure and success in an election rather than blaming the electoral umpire.

He stated this yesterday in Benin City at the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) office during a post-election review meeting with journalists where he said that is the only way the nation’s democracy can grow.

I am not in a position to say how well we performed in the election but what I can tell you is that the management team and the entire INEC in Edo State strived as much as possible to conduct the elections the best way we can based on the constitution, based on the laws, based on the guidelines for the elections.

“It was interesting that at some point when the elections were concluded, we had a few protests here and there and interestingly, the three political parties that won elections in the state, that won various seats had at different times also complained about where they did not win and I found that interesting that where they won, they were happy about it, where they did not win, in some instances, they raised issues about it. It is about the game politicians play that whenever they win, it was a victory for democracy, it was a reflection of how the people love them and voted for them and where they did not win, they will always find one or two reasons to excuse themselves why they didn’t do well and want to blame everyone apart from themselves.”

Effanga stressed the need for Nigerians to act rightly and criticize politicians behind electoral violence during elections in the country.

According to him, “The people who disrupt elections do not commit it on their own accord but are always sponsored by politicians

“And if people disrupt elections, they didn’t just do it on their own, somebody recruited them to do that. Who are the people recruiting them to do that? The same people who are supposed to be the beneficiaries of the process are the politicians. We need to call these people out,” he said.

“The quality of what we do is a reflection of us as a people because the people who conducted the elections were Nigerians, contesters were Nigerians, those who disrupted the elections were Nigerians, the people who shot voters during elections and the people who reported the elections were Nigerians. So, it is for us as Nigerians to decide and act the right way at all times”.

He said the commission will always act in the best possible way, as it had no interest in any of the political parties or candidates.