By Mani Imman

Last Wednesday, October 9th, 2024, Plateau State held elections in the 17 local government areas of the State to elect the Chairmen and Councillors who would drive the process of governance at the grassroots.Since the elections were concluded and the winners announced and sworn in, as usual, there has been a divided opinion about the conduct of the exercise.

While a few flay the lapses observed, the majority are commending the State Governor, Caleb Mutfwang, and the Plateau State Independent Electoral Commission, PLASIEC, for the feat saying Plateau people have not had it this good in a long while.

Recall that the last time the exercise was held in 2021 under the All Progressives Congress, APC-led administration of former Governor Simon Lalong, election results were announced as the exercise was ongoing and the APC won all 17 Chairmanship and 325 Councillorship seats.

However, the October 9th exercise has revealed the strength of the 11 Political Parties that participated, showing that although the PDP is a ruling Party, the APC is still a force to be reckoned with in the political calculations in the State.

The results announced so far by the electoral umpire show the PDP got 17 Chairmanship seats and 285 Councillorship seats, the APC, the lead opposition Party won 14 Councillorship seats, the YPP got four seats, the NNPP got one seat while a rerun will take place in 21 Wards at a date to be set by PLASIEC.

However, the APC has rejected the outcome and promised to challenge it in the courts as the Party Chairman, Mr. Rufus Bature, faulted PLASIEC and said, “the ruling PDP failed to use the opportunity to test its popularity ahead of the 2027 elections… APC will use all available channels to seek redress.”

But citizen John Iliya commended the process saying, “Kudos to Governor Caleb Mutfwang for allowing PLASIEC to perform its role without interference.

“This is a departure from what was obtained in the past; if he had interfered, the PDP would have won everything, and no other political party would be mentioned to have won a single seat.”

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