BY VINCENT UJUMADU, Awka

THE over 1.7 million voters in Anambra State will today line up to elect local government officials, the first since the expiration of the elected council officials in the state in 2002.

Altogether, 21 chairmen and 326 councillors are to be elected today in the over 4000 polling centers in the state.

The election has, however, not been without hiccups as several court cases trailed its preparations by the Anambra State Independent National Electoral Commission, ANSIEC.

As at  4pm yesterday, Justice Isah Bature Gafai of the Federal High Court, Awka was yet to deliver a judgment on the suit filed by the All Progressives Congress, APC, against ANSIEC and the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, praying for an interlocutory injunction for the stoppage of the election over alleged non display of the voters’ register to be used for the election.

However, despite the pending suits, candidates for the election from all the political parties were enthusiastic about the exercise, with most of them sounding very optimistic of winning.

Even candidates of APC whose party is in court, campaigned vigorously and have been mobilizing the electorate for the election, especially in areas they consider as APC stronghold.

The headquarters of ANSIEC was a beehive of activities yesterday as electoral officials were seen loading the election materials into buses that lined up to deliver the materials to the local government headquarters.

Security was also beefed up and those who had no genuine business in the secretariat were turned back by the security operatives.

In some of the local governments, some councillorship and chairmanship candidates complained that the list containing their names was missing.

For instance, the PDP list for Ihiala local government was removed by unknown persons from the council notice board and the affected candidates were making spirited efforts to know their fate about today’s election.