Ahead of the Anambra State governorship election scheduled for Saturday, November 8, various political parties and stakeholders have voiced significant concerns regarding potential electoral malpractices. The ruling All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), through its national chairman Chief Sly Ezeokenwa, alleged a sophisticated plot to rig the election. This plot reportedly involves falsifying polling unit results outside the state and subsequently introducing these altered results to replace genuine ones within Anambra. Furthermore, Ezeokenwa claimed that those behind this electoral fraud intend to recruit fake police officers to escort individuals transporting the fraudulent results into the state.

Similarly, the state chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Basil Ejidike, expressed worry over an alleged scheme to influence the election outcome through widespread vote-buying. Ejidike also raised a critical issue concerning the use of local government chairmen’s offices or their waiting rooms as Collation Centres. He cited past experiences, particularly during the last bye-election in the state, where security aides attached to local government chairmen reportedly intimidated and chased away opposition party members from collation centers, facilitating result manipulation. Ejidike therefore urged the electoral umpire to prohibit the use of such local government offices as Collation Centres for the upcoming governorship election.

The candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Jude Ezenwafor, echoed the concerns about vote-buying, stating that it had been perfected as a method to manipulate the election. Adding to these apprehensions, Chief Uchenna Ugwuoji, chairman of the Inter-party Advisory Committee (IPAC), proposed a structural change to deter vote-buying. He urged the electoral commission to expand voting cubicles to accommodate ballot boxes. This arrangement, he argued, would allow voters to deposit their thumb-printed ballot papers directly into the ballot box before exiting the cubicle and encountering party agents, thereby preventing agents from observing a voter's choice and discouraging vote-buying.

These serious concerns were articulated by the party leaders and the PDP candidate during a crucial meeting with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) chairman, Prof. Joash, and other senior officials of the commission, alongside other election stakeholders. The meeting took place at the Prof. Dora Akunyili Women Development Centre in Awka on Tuesday. In response to the myriad of concerns presented by the political leaders, the INEC chairman provided assurances that comprehensive arrangements had been meticulously put in place to ensure a rigging-free election. Furthermore, DIG Okolo affirmed that non-state security actors would be prevented from instigating violence or disrupting the free, fair, and credible conduct of the governorship election.