Candidates of the 20 parties contesting the August 9 Osun State governorship election and other stakeholders have agreed to ensure free and fair poll devoid of violence.
They made the pledge at a sensitisation workshop organised for political parties and stakeholders by the office of the Special Adviser to the President on Inter-Party Affairs in Osogbo, the state capital.
They made the pledge at a sensitisation workshop organised for political parties and stakeholders by the office of the Special Adviser to the President on Inter-Party Affairs in Osogbo, the state capital.
The parties in attendance include the All Progressives Congress (APC), the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the Labour Party (LP), the National Conscience Party (NCP) and Action Alliance (AA).
Others are All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Alliance for Democracy (AD), Accord Party (AP) and Democratic Peoples Movement (DPM).
Issues bordering on the smooth conduct of the election were discussed at the meeting held at the Leisure Spring Hotel, Osogbo.
Some of the governorship candidates, who could not attend the programme, sent their representatives.
While the APC candidate, Governor Rauf Aregbesola, sent the party’s state chairman, Elder Adebiyi Adelowo to the event, the PDP’s candidate, Senator Iyiola Omisore, was represented by his running-mate, Adejare Bello.
The Special Adviser to the President on Inter Party-Affairs, Senator Ben Obi, while opening the workshop, stressed the need for all the political parties and their candidates to shun violence during the election.
Obi said free and fair election is a panacea to peaceful co-existence in any society and pledged that the governorship election would be conducted in a fair atmosphere.
He also urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to create a level-play ground for all political parties before and during the governorship election.
He said: “Most of our political parties have negated a lot of their duties and concentrated mainly on elections and attaining political power at the expense of an entrenched democracy.”
“I am calling on all the stakeholders in the Osun State governorship election to embrace peace. All the political parties contesting the election should have equal access to the media. And we want all political parties to have the freedom to publicise their programmes and agenda.”
