March 15, (THEWILL) – The Resident Electoral Commissioner for Cross River State, Professor Gabriel Yomere, says all result sheets for this weekend’s governorship elections will be signed by him.
Similarly, the administrative secretary of the commission will sign the result sheets for the house of assembly elections.
Professor Yomere disclosed this at the CBN office in Calabar, while distributing sensitive materials to the eighteen local government areas of the state.
He disclosed that although the Electoral Act does not necessarily require this, he decided to do so to erase doubts about the upcoming elections as over 10 petitions have been received.
In his words, “The rumour kitchen has been working very hard and there has been about 8 to 10 petitions regarding result sheets and also demands has been made that the REC signs them.
“No provision has been made on this in the Electoral Act, but whatever I do is with the fear of God.
“Myself and management have been elected to sign the result sheet and while I will sign that of governor, the administrative will sign that of the house of assembly”, he said.
In his response, Comrade Anthony Bissong, the state Chairman of the Inter-Party Advisory Council welcomed the development.
Comrade Bissong, who is also the state chairman of the Young People’s Party, said they demanded the results sheets are signed because they did not want a repeat of what happened during the last elections.
He said, “There were observable lapses during the last elections where results were collated without result sheets.
“We do not want what happened in Cross River North during the last elections where result sheets were absent to repeat itself.
“The signing of the result sheets by the REC is like a security measure and this is the first victory shot as we push for credible elections in the state”, he said.
He added that they will religiously follow the distribution of the materials and ensure that they are intact.
THEWILL reports that the state has a total of 3,281 poling units across the 18 local government areas of the state.
About the Author
THEWILL Correspondent, Aniekan Bassey has over six years experience that spans across several fields in print journalism including development communication, sexual reproductive and health rights issues, crime, climate change, social justice, business and human interest stories.
