The Adamawa State Independent Electoral Commission (ADSIEC) has put off its proposed local government council election.
The state electoral body, which earlier scheduled the election for December 4, 2021, gave no new date for the exercise.
Chairman of the Commission, Alhaji Isa Shettima, said in a press release on Friday that the polls will no longer be conducted as scheduled ‘due to some challenges.’
Shettima said his commission had ascertained that, after a number of incidents that impacted negatively on properties of the commission, the money allocated for the exercise in the 2021 budget is too meagre to organise the said election.
“Preparations by the commission to conduct the LGC election are suspended to give government time to source for supplementary funds,” the ADSIEC chairman said.
He stressed that arrangements for the election are confronted with multiple challenges, explaining that for instance, “The re-usable election materials like ballot boxes, duty vests, bags, kits among others retrieved from field after the last election were vandalised by End SARS demostrators.”
He said also that the conversion of voting points into polling units has increased the number of polling units from 2, 609 to 4,104 in the state, adding, “This change will lead to increase in both facilities and ad hoc staff.”
He added that ongoing registration exercise of new voters will have a resultant increase in ballot papers that will be required for the council election.
“These changes will require additional funds to organise and conduct the election; hence, the suspension of the exercise, to enable government source supplementary funds,” the ADSIEC boss concluded.
It is unclear how a vacuum to be created by not doing the election early in December will be tackled, as the term of incumbent chairmen and councillors across the 21 LGAs of the state will be up on December 8, 2021
