Voting is ongoing now in most of the polling centres in Bagawi/Shanono, and Guri/Tsanyawa, where a by-election is holding in the northwest of Kano.
BusinessDay observed that the casting of votes, which started 8 am around most of the Polling Booths in the four affected Local Government Areas in the state, is now coming to a close at the Centres.
Although there were isolated incidents of attempts by political thugs believed to have the backing of some of the major political parties, participating in the hotly contested elections in the State House of Assembly, in the overall, the conduct of the election has been rated high.
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Commenting on the conduct of the election, Abubakar M. Biso, an NYSC member who is one of the presiding officers in Bagawi, confirmed that the election started as early as 8 am, describing the turnout as very impressive.
According to him, the actual voting has finally ended in some of the voting centres at around 2.30 pm, noting that collation of votes is not going and it is expected to end very soon.
Meanwhile, as the collation continues, the national secretariat of the All-Progressives Congress (APC) has called for the cancellation of the Bagawi/Shanono by-election, as well as the Guri re-run election, due to what is described as violence associated with the election.
The call for cancellation was made by Felix Morka, national Publicity Secretary of the party, in a statement issued by him in Abuja.
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“The All-Progressives Congress (APC) calls on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)to immediately cancel the Shanono/Bagawi constituency, and the Ghari constituency re-run election in Kano due to widespread extreme violence and election disruption by Armed thugs across several polling units in Shanono, Bagawi, and Ghari constituencies.
“Verifiable reports from Shanono and Bagawi Local Government Areas and Ghari Constituency have voters fleeing polling areas, with deployed security personnel overwhelmed by the violence, making the prospects of a credible election impossible.
Proceeding with the Shanono/Bagawi Kano State Constituency by -election, and the Ghari re-run election in the atmosphere of utter brigandage and outright violent voter intimidation will be against democracies dictates of free, fair, and peaceful election, and set a dangerous precedent for undesirable and unacceptable election heist”, a copy of the statement in possession of BusinessDay indicated.
