Positive signs are all over that this weekend’s rescheduled distribution of Permanent Voters Cards (PVC) and Continuous Voters Registration (CVR) across all the polling units in Cross River State holding from Friday, 15th to Sunday, 17th August, 2014, as well as the other exercises to follow will record a high level of participation across the state, www.calitown.com investigations can reveal.
Already, most politicians in the state have mobilized supporters to turn out en masse, hoping to benefit from this mobilization exercise as the buildup to the 2015 elections gather momentum. While the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, through her resident head in the state, Mike Igini, has given assurances on her level of preparedness to flawlessly conduct the exercise, “politicians in the state are leaving nothing to chance as they are all working to ensure that this critical aspect of the entire electoral process is not neglected”, as one source put it”.
Some politicians with interest in the transport sector have deployed such interests in conveying constituents to their local areas while others are doling out cash as transport fares in a move watchers say is a dress rehearsal for the 2015 showdown. At one of such interests on the Murtala Muhammed Highway, Calabar, a large crowd of people were seen this morning eager to board the buses for free to the Northern part of the state. One person spoken to said he was “travelling to go and get the voter’s card because it is the document that will help me vote into office the people of my choice”.
More than ever before, the new media in the state and mobile phones have become another battle ground for politicians and their allies, hoping to woo voters to their respective sides of the divide. While no politician in CRS has willingly deployed posters, almost all those vieing for gubernatorial and parliamentary positions are by the hour, generating and sending bulk short message services, SMS, to a broad section of the electorate. Again, political associations in support of one politician or the other are mushrooming on social platforms like Facebook and Twitter, laying claims to having the right credentials for the various elective positions. It is a development that the newly registered Association of Cross River Online Journalists, ACROJ, believes “will be positive enough to help Cross Riverians make informed political decisions”. ACROJ however warns that “Cross Riverians must be vigilant and avoid candidates and platforms that do not tell the truth. It will help lay the foundation for purposeful political engagement between the electorate and those who seek elective office in the state”.