BAUCHI – Mr Samuel Madawaki, INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) for Bauchi State has called on politicians to respect the law guiding political campaigns.
Madawaki made the comment on Tuesday at an interactive session with stakeholders on the distribution and renaming of polling units in the state.
He said that the official time to commence political campaign for the 2015 elections was not yet due.
Madawaki said that the commission had noticed that many aspirants from virtually all the parties were busy campaigning.
“I am appealing and calling on politicians to be patient and wait for the right time to start their political campaigns,” he said.
According to him, Bauchi State has been allocated a total of 1,111 polling units in addition to the existing 4,074 units by INEC.
He said that in distributing the additional units, the commission set up a committee to use criteria based on proportionality and equality.
Madawaki said the commission invited the stakeholders to the session to in order to inform them about the development.
He told the stakeholders to make their observations or input known for the commission to come up with a final copy of the distribution.
The INEC commissioner said that the new guideline stipulated that no polling unit should be located in places of worship, traditional rulers’ residences, private residences and public buildings.
Madawaki said that it was necessary to involve the stakeholders because they had a vital role to play in ensuring the success of the exercise in the state.
Some of the stakeholders at the session called on INEC to organise regular interactive sessions with them, so that they could be more enlightened.
Politicians, security agents and religious leaders, among others, were in attendance at the meeting.(NAN)
