Opposition parties in Kwara State yesterday failed to stop the Kwara state Independent Electoral Commission (KWASIEC) from conducting the local government election scheduled for Saturday (today).

Justice Sulaiman Kawu of the state High Court delivering a judgement on the interlocutory injunction filed to stop the election said the applicant, the All Progressives Congress (APC), failed to meet the requirements to stop the election.

For this reason, the judge ruled, “the application is hereby dismissed”. 

The implication of the ruling is that the local government election would go on as scheduled without APC’s participation.

APC had prayed the court to restrain KWASIEC from conducting the election on the ground of a pendency of case before the court. The suit filed by the party seeking the extension of the election has been adjourned till 7th of November.

Counsel to the APC, Mr. Deji Gbadeyan had sought for “an order of injunction of the court restraining KWSIEC from conducting any election on the 26th day of October 2013 into the various Kwara state local government councils when a matter challenging the validity, legality and the constitutionality of the proposed election is subjudis and pending before the court for determination”.

On his part, KWSIEC’s counsel, Adelodun Salman (SAN) urged the court to dismiss the claimants’ application.

However the application did not succeed yesterday thereby granting the commission the imprimatur to conduct the election in 15 local government areas of the state. 

Only Offa local government is exempted from the election following a rerun conducted on August 31.

It would be recalled that another bid to stop the election by some aggrieved Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) members also failed on Tuesday as the Federal High Court Ilorin adjourned the case till next week when the election would have been conducted and winners emerged.

With the legal hurdles cleared, KWASIEC says it is ready to conduct the election as scheduled with only three political parties-namely Labour Party, Social Democratic Party (SDP) and PDP. 

Speaking with newsmen, KWASIEC Chairman, Dr. Uthman Ajidagba, said the three were the only political  parties that obtained nomination forms to participate in the poll among all registered political parties in the country.

Ajidagba said the affected political parties are those that would take part in the LG election in the remaining 15 local government councils in the state.

“All other political parties including All Peoples Congress(APC) did not indicate interest to contest for any position as they did not obtain any nomination forms”, he said.

The election is therefore a virtual walkover for the PDP given that LP and SDP are virtually non-existent in the state.

At the state High Court premises yesterday, APC supporters who had stormed the court early in the morning anticipating the cancellation of the election left the venue disappointedly after the judge delivered the judgement which did not favour them.

But the interim APC Chairman in the state, Comrade Sola Iji described Saturday’s election as a contest between “PDP and PDP”, saying it is not going to be a popular election. 

Speaking further, Iji of the defunct ACN added, “We didn’t say we did not want to participate, we wanted to participate. From the ruling notice was given about five months ago but the notice was given to CPC, ANPP and ACN and by 31st of July was when APC came alive. 

The PDP on its part said it had concluded all arrangements to participate in the election in the 181 wards and 15 council areas that the election would hold.

PDP chairman, Hon. Isola Balogun-Fulani,also debunked speculation that the party had no candidate in the Saturday council poll, describing it as mischievous.

It is therefore incontrovertible that all the 15 chairmanship and 181 councillorship candidates of PDP have the greatest chance of emerging winners in the election with the absence of APC which would have challenged the party.