Governor Alex Otti’s Labour Party lost the local government election held on Saturday in Abia State to the Zenith Labour Party and the Young Progressive Party.
The ruling LP got nothing as the Zenith Labour Party, ZLP won 15 local government chairmanship positions while the YPP got two seats.
Announcing the results, the Chairman of Abia State Independent Electoral Commission, Prof. George Chima, thanked the winners as well as the losers, advising them to imbibe the spirit of sportsmanship.
He also commended the security agents in the state and other stakeholders for a job he said was well done.
According to him, Abia State is peaceful and urged all to maintain peace.
Meanwhile, the late distribution of electoral materials and the arrival of officials at the polling units marred the conduct of Saturday’s Local Government Elections in Abia.
According to the News Agency of Nigeria, the Abia State Independent Electoral Commission did not distribute materials to the polling units as of 11 am against the 7 am slated by the commission.
The commission had said the electoral materials were scheduled to arrive at the polling units at 7 am, while accreditation and voting would commence by 8 am.
At Umuahia South, Osisioma, Aba North and Aba South LGs, neither the electoral materials nor election officials were seen at some of the polling units visited.
There was also a low turnout of voters at the various polling units visited across the state.
Prospective voters, who were scanty in number, were seen at some of the polling units waiting for materials and voting to commence.
In Umuahia South, Aba North, South and Osisioma LGAs, voters, election officials and security personnel were conspicuously absent at the polling units visited.
Some of the polling units visited by NAN included Polling Units 009, and 015 at Avonipupe Primary School and Ipupe Village Hall Polling Unit 008.
Others were Polling Units 011 and 012 at Ogbo Central School as well as Polling Units 007, 013 and 017 located at the Umuosu Community School.
In an interview with NAN, two prospective voters in Ubakala, near Umuahia, expressed disappointment over the failure of the ABSIEC to ensure the smooth conduct of the polls.
A hairdresser, Mrs Joy Eze said she monitored her polling unit to know when the elections would start, however, she eventually went on to attend to her customers while waiting for the exercise to commence.
Another resident, Mrs Onyinyechi Ishmael, said that she was not interested in the polls because her previous experience showed that votes do not count in elections in the country.
