Paul Osuyi, Asaba
Delta State Independent Electoral Commission (DSIEC) said the next local government election would be conducted across the 500 political wards which include the 34 wards that were recently created.
Chairman of the commission, Mike Ogbodu made this known in Asaba during a meeting with representatives of registered political parties and other stakeholders, yesterday.
Ogbodu said before now, there were 466 wards, adding that the commission recently created 34 wards in order to correct the imbalance in some local government areas.
He announced that the next council election has been fixed for March 6, 2021, as the tenure of the present elected officials would elapse on January 6, 2021.
“The purpose of this meeting is to publicly make known the date fixed by the commission for the conduct of the 2021 LG general election; issue guidelines and timetable, as well as the schedule of activities for the conduct of the election.
“Going by this public notice, therefore, pre-election activities will commence immediately as we are poised to beefing up our preparedness capabilities by the day,” Ogbodu said.
Representatives of 12 registered political parties were present at the meeting.
However, the main opposition party, All Progressive Congress (APC) was absent at the meeting.
Contacted, state secretary of the APC, Chidi Okonji said the party did not shun the stakeholders’ meeting but that the party officials were in Abuja for pressing national issues.