By Samuel Oyadongha
YENAGOA — A Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, aspirant for weekend bye-election into the vacant position of the Yenagoa constituency II in the Bayelsa State House of Assembly, Mr. Bubaraye Dakolo, has petitioned the national chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, over  alleged imposition of Mr. Ebipadei Fekoweimo as the party flag bearer without recourse to party primaries as stipulated by law.

The aggrieved aspirant in a letter by his lawyer, said the PDP failed to comply with the relevant provisions of the party’s constitution and the Electoral Act, 2006, which made it clear that nomination of a candidate for an elective office by a political party must be preceded by a party congress and/or primaries.

Dakolo noted with regret that his effort to pick a nomination form at the PDP state secretariat in Yenagoa was frustrated by the antics of the officials, who refused to make the forms available even after a written request was sent to the secretariat.

He said, “upon being informed of the vacancy, INEC initially fixed August 14, 2010 for a bye-election of a new member for the constituency in the Assembly and so requested nominations from political parties. I and other interested candidates made painstaking efforts to pick up forms from the PDP with the intent to participate in the primaries but were denied the opportunity.”

According to the petition, interested aspirants were still waiting to pick nomination forms to participate in the primaries when they heard that Mr. Fekoweimo, had been hand-picked to be the flag bearer and his name forwarded to INEC without any primaries.

The letter indicated that protests by Mr. Dakolo for proper things to be done had met brick wall and he  resolved to take a legal action to get justice and make PDP comply with the relevant provisions.