Fourteen political parties have signed a peace accord with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State.
This leaves four political parties out, as 18 parties are registered with the INEC in the state.
Speaking during the official signing of the accord in Yenagoa, INEC’s Resident Electoral Commissioner in Bayelsa, Mr. Emmanuel Hart said that the Commission has worked tirelessly to deliver on its Constitutional mandate, guided strictly by the Electoral Act 2022 and its guidelines.
He noted that INEC needed the cooperation of all stakeholders to conduct a free, fair, peaceful, transparent, and credible elections acceptable to all.
“Activities of political parties from the moment the election timetable was published gave a clue to how the political space would be before, during, and after the elections.
“If deliberate efforts are not made to check the excesses of some key players in the process the credibility and peace required for the success of the elections may be greatly compromised or jeopardized.
“Our meeting here today is a deliberate effort to domesticate the peace accord; a pact by all candidates participating in the elections here in Bayelsa.
“The pact will be signed by party chairmen on behalf of themselves and their candidates. This action will demonstrate to their followers and supporters that irrespective of differences in their political views and inclinations, they are first Bayelsa people.
“The elections will come and go, but Bayelsa will remain. It is also to remind leaders and their followers that they need one another to fulfill their goals to govern and deliver dividends to their constituents,’’ he said.
Similarly, the Commissioner of Police in Bayelsa, Mr. Ben Okolo, who supervised the exercise said that the command will ensure the safe conduct of the elections in the state.
Some of the parties that signed the peace pact were Action Alliance (AA), Action Democratic Party (ADP), Action Peoples Party (APP), African Action Congress Party (AAP), and the African Democratic Congress (ADC).
Others were the Allied Peoples Movement (APM), Boot Party (BP), National Rescue Movement (NRM), Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), Social Democratic Party (SDP), Young Progressives Party (YPP) and Zenith Labour Party (ZLP).
