Unlike, the Presidential election, where the electorate voted based on factors that included religion, that of the governorship will take a different path, as majority have resolved to cast their votes based on achievements rather than party affiliation.

Three candidates from the All Progress Congress (APC), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Social Democratic Party (PDP) are the major contenders for the number one position of the state.

Pundits are, however, of the opinion that until the ruling party put its house in order before the said date, the APC or SDP may end up triumphing in the polls.

They say PDP’s refusal to allow internal democracy to thrive, which led to the massive exodus of party faithful to opposition parties, will work against it.

The imposition of the governorship candidate, Darius D. Ishaku, and over 90 per cent of the other candidates contesting for seats in the House of Assembly, on the people, would, as well, work against the party in the election.

More to that, the refusal of stakeholders from the southern parts of the state to ask one of the two governorship candidates from the zone to step down, may also give the APC candidate an edge over both PDP and SDP. The zone (Southern Taraba), it would be recalled, has been clamouring for power to shift to the zone, but the failure of the PDP to ensure transparent primaries, compelled the governorship candidate of the SDP, David Sabo Kente, to leave PDP.

While both the PDP and SDP candidates are Christians, that of APC, Aisha Jummai Alhassan, who happened to be the first female governorship candidate from the entire region, is a Muslim, and she is currently on the verge of beating her male counterparts in the poll.

Equally expected to count, as a factor, is the indifference that majority of the House of Assembly members showed in their constituency, which many of the electorate say, would, no doubt, act against them.

Majority of the members, who are currently seeking re-election, have, on several occasion, been accused of turning their backs on the people that worked tirelessly to make them what they are today. For this reason, the electorates are warming up for protest votes.

Watchers of the political atmosphere in the state say what happened last Saturday, where members of PDP worked against the party by voting en-mass for the opposition, the same scenario would, no doubt, repeat itself in Taraba.

The only factor that would, however, make the ruling PDP to clinch victory in the elections, as made known to our correspondent by a chieftain of one of the opposition parties, “is when the card readers are not deployed.”

The chieftain believes that the only way PDP can sail through is by ‘rigging’ hence, the need for the INEC to insist, “that the card readers should be used.”

Citing the malpractices that happened in the Saturday’s elections, PDP, in the state, according to him, “is finished and by God’s grace what happened at the national level would happened here next week.”