We only declare election not war in Bayelsa, says INEC

Ahead of the November 16, 2019 poll in Bayelsa State, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said it had not declared war but the election for the people to elect the governor of their choice.

The Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Monday Tom, stated this yesterday in Yenagoa against the backdrop of reports of violent clashes between supporters of the leading political parties and hate speeches at campaign grounds.

At a town hall meeting organised by the Stakeholder Democracy Network (SDN) in collaboration with the United Nations Democracy Fund (UNDEF) on addressing electoral violence, fraud and low voter turnout, he appealed to the political gladiators in the state to rein in their supporters, declaring that the electoral umpire does not want to record any deaths arising from the election.

Represented by the Head of Election and Political Party Monitoring (EPM), Chinedu Nwankwo, the REC said the commission was prepared to conduct a free, fair and credible election decided at the first ballot.