Barring any upset from opposition parties, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) may be set for another landslide win in Saturday’s local government elections in Lagos State.
Four years ago, the ruling party in the state swept the entire 20 local government areas and 37 local council development areas in the state, in an election that was characterised by low voter turnout.
Ahead of Saturday’s election, the Lagos State Independent National Electoral Commission (LASIEC) announced that 14 political parties in the state would participate in the election.
The parties include the All Progressives Congress (APC), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Accord, Action Alliance (AA), Action Democratic Party ADP), African Action Congress (AAC), All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Allied Peoples Movement (APM), and Because Of Our Tomorrow (BOOT).
The rest are Labour, National Rescue Movement, New Nigeria Peoples Party, Social Democratic Party, and Young Progressives Party.
While LASIEC gave the nod to the 14 parties, it shut the door on 10 others, namely: Alliance of Social Democrats, All Grand Alliance Party, Change Advocacy Party, Mega Party of Nigeria, Progressive People’s Alliance, Save Nigeria Congress, We The People’s Nigeria, Young Democratic Party, Advanced Congress of Democrats, and Mass Movement of Nigeria.
Like the previous elections in the state, only the PDP has enough spread across the state to match the APC.
While some of the 14 parties are unknown to Lagosians, analysts say, others do not have the resources to match the two biggest parties in mobilisation and campaigning