The Peoples Democratic Party in Ekiti State on Friday said it would not participate in the forthcoming local government election for chairmanship and councillorship positions in the 16 local governments and the newly created 19 local council development areas in Ekiti.

The PDP, which alleged that “the result of the election has been predetermined,” accused the electoral umpire, Ekiti State Independent Electoral Commission, of failure to adequately inform other parties about the local government election.

In a statement in Ado Ekiti by the PDP State Publicity Secretary, Raphael Adeyanju, titled, ‘Ekiti PDP boycotts council polls, says APC allergic to violence-free election,’ the party’s State Working Committee led by the chairman, Lanre Omolase, after a crucial meeting with the party stakeholders on Thursday, mandated all PDP members to boycott the council poll.

According to the statement, the SWC said, “The ruling All Progressive Congress is not capable of conducting any peaceful, free and fair democratic contest without violence.”

The PDP took a swipe at the electoral body, saying, “How can the Ekiti SIEC convince us of impartiality when it is ready to conduct elections in the new LCDAs that were created for political reasons without considering their viability? Why did it take Governor Kayode Fayemi this long to create the LCDAs? We are not going to be part of this electoral fraud.”

But APC Public Relations Officer, Ade Ajayi, said the PDP was only running away from the election having been overwhelmed by Fayemi’s achievements.

Ajayi, who said the APC would have loved highly competitive local government elections, said, “If the PDP said they are not going to participate, that is their own cup of tea. We won’t force them. That is a signal that they have been rejected by Ekiti people.

“If you go round the state, you will see what Governor Fayemi is doing in terms of projects everywhere. The APC popularity is soaring by the day and that has got the PDP confounded, hence, the withdrawal, because of the fear that their party would lose all the chairmanship and councilorship seats to our great party,” Ajayi said.