2011 April Polls Update

April 26, 2011

Voter’s apathy mars Governorship election in Kano

By AbdulSalam Muhammad
Millions of eligible voters in Kano Tuesday refused to stayed away from both the governorship and the state Assembly elections across the 44 local council of the state.

Reports across the state indicate that there was a significant drop in the total number of women and the aged that turned up for the Tuesday exercise that was mainly dominated by youths.

The voters apathy may not be unconnected with April 19th mayhem that claimed lives and properties in the ancient city as uneasy calm still pervades the skyline of the environs.

A voter who identified himself simply as Ismaila in Kawaji wards, attributed the low turn out of voters to General Buhari’s failure to clinch the presidential election, stressing that ‘to many of us voting starts and ends with Buhari’s abortive presidency’

The story is the same in Sabon Gari, a predominantly Christian quarter in the municipality, many voters stayed way from the polling units despite heavy security presence.

Nikolas Aboyi told Vanguard that most eligible voters had been displaced by the April 19th riot, pointing out that no amount of security presence in the areas can persuade voters to come out.

According to him ‘we are scared stiff because of April 19th incident, many are yet to recover from the trauma and colossal loss they suffered, and despite series of assurance from the authority we simply believe all is not well here”.