The Inter-Party Advisory Council in Lagos State has faulted the state Independent Electoral Commission on the release of guidelines for the 2025 council poll.

 IPAC, in a statement jointly signed by its Chairperson, Temilade Akinade and the Public Relations Officer, George Ahiru, on Saturday, said the commission erred in the way it released the guidelines.

 LASIEC on Friday announced July 12 as the date of the election in 20 Local Government Areas and 37 Local Council Development Areas.

Reacting, IPAC, the umbrella body of the 19 registered political parties in the state, said LASIEC disregarded established communication protocols in the release of the guidelines.

 The council criticised the commission for not engaging political parties on important issues on the election, prior to releasing the guidelines.

 IPAC also accused LASEIC of shrouding many things about the election in secrecy.

 The council said: “Critical questions and issues remain unresolved as regards the appropriate interpretation of the Supreme Court’s pronouncements on LG autonomy and how that will impact the 37 LCDAs established by the state government. IPAC only recently learned that a revised LASIEC law empowering the agency to conduct executive elections into 57 LG/LCDAs was approved on January 9 and signed into law on January 10 by the governor.

 “This took IPAC by surprise. Such critical legislation should be in the public domain. The information was not made public on any platform and copies of the new law have yet to be made available to IPAC for distribution to political parties”

 The council said that the new LASIEC board led by Justice Mobolanle Okikiola-Ighinle (retd), had not done much to foster a transparent relationship between the commission and IPAC or provide a platform for the council to make input on plans for the election.

 According to IPAC, the new board has only met with representatives of political parties  once since January, stating that the meeting was at the request of IPAC.

 IPAC said that LASEIC should have called  a series of meetings with political parties to properly explain the provisions of the new law as they affect the  election.

 The council stated, “LASIEC has a lot to learn from INEC in Lagos State about the need for continuous engagement, communication, and transparency to have a smooth, free and fair election. The constant late release of guidelines close to when the electoral cycle begins and the lack of continued engagement with the political parties was an error. This will make political parties and their members to misinterpret the actions of LASIEC as driving in the direction of a predetermined outcome.’’

(NAN)