Scores of voters in Lagos State have expressed dismay over the omission of the Labour Party (LP) logo, its on some ballot papers in some Polling Units in Lagos State.
It was gathered that this affected ballot papers for Senate and House of Representative candidates.
The omission forced many to call on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to provide answers based on the argument that the Labour Party logo appeared in previous elections.
While reacting to the omission in a post on Twitter, Pat Utomi, a former presidential candidate, said that his phone had been inundated with calls over the omission.
‘‘My phones are almost blowing up with angry voters who cannot see where to vote for Labour Party candidates for Senate. I have been appealing for calm but buoyed by people’s determination to vote LP all the way,’’ Pat Utomi wrote on his Twitter page.
It was gathered that the omission may have been due to the inability of the party in the state to provide its list of candidates to INEC.
Recall that in the month of September 2022, the Lagos State Chairman of the Labour Party, Olukayode Salako, revealed the reason behind the omission of their senatorial and House of Representatives candidates on the final list of candidates for the 2023 general elections by INEC.
According to Salako, the party’s candidates were omitted from the list because a former chairman of the party, Ifagbemi Awamaridi, did not submit them to INEC at the appropriate time.
Salako however noted that due to the fact that Awamaridi presented the names to INEC late when the window had closed, the party was considering the court option.
‘‘We will soon have the names of our candidates in the process. It is through the courts that our candidates will be uploaded (on INEC’s website),’’ he noted.
Suffice to say that the Labour Party (LP) did not get its way in court, reason its Senate and House of Representative candidates were omitted from the ballot papers in Lagos State
