Governor Douye Diri of Bayelsa State announced that his administration plans to hold local government elections this year. Speaking to journalists, he explained that the state government is waiting for the 2023 general elections to conclude before initiating the council polls. The terms of the last elected local government chairmen and councillors expired on August 14, 2022, leaving the councils without elected leaders since then.
In recent months, Governor Diri faced intense criticism from the opposition and other stakeholders over his administration’s failure to organize the council elections. He expressed optimism that the elections would take place this year, after the national elections are completed. “We will do that—conduct local government elections—hopefully this year. We want the national elections, at least, to come and go, and then we will set up the procedures for the local government election. So, hopefully, we will have our local government election this year,” he said.
The previous council election was conducted by the State Independent Electoral Commission during the second term of Diri’s predecessor, Seriake Dickson, in August 2019. In that election, the ruling PDP won all eight local government councils and the 105 wards in the state, while the APC and other opposition parties boycotted, citing a lack of confidence in the BYSIEC’s ability to conduct a credible poll.
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