AHEAD of the November 6 governorship election in Anambra State, a report by the Centre for Democracy and Development, has described the All Progressives Congress and its Governorship candidate, Senator Andy Uba as the most disadvantaged. The CDD said this in a report titled, ‘Low voter turnout amidst IPOB threat,’ released in Abuja, on Monday.
It predicted that because the security in the state has been compromised, rigging and vote buying was likely to have an impact on the final outcome of the election.
The report partly read, “APC appears the most disadvantaged in incumbency terms, boasting no Anambra representatives in either the State Assembly or either of the two houses of federal parliament.
“Given its association with the Buhari administration, which has historically been deeply unpopular in the South-East, the APC will have a steep hill to climb in respect to winning popular support ahead of the election.
“What remains unclear is the extent to which the APC candidate having previously served as a state governor (albeit for 14 days before being removed by the Supreme Court) will pull in his party’s favor.
“Nevertheless, given its continued dominance at the federal level and since the party exerts influence over the security forces and other levels of state, it would be premature to entirely write off the political prospects of its candidate, Andy Uba.”
On the level of insecurity in the state the report stated, “It is also likely that the context of insecurity, a measure of latent public support for IPOB’s cause, the heavy deployment of security forces and the acrimonious political competition leading up to the poll will depress voter turnout leading to an even higher level of voter apathy than has typically been witnessed in Anambra.
“This is a concerning outlook for several reasons. The first is that higher voter absenteeism means that instances of election malpractices such as vote buying, rigging will have an even more dramatic impact on the final outcome.”