As the preparation for the coming Kwara State Governorship Candidates Forum with the youths in the state hits top gear, registered participants have picked six out of the 32 candidates from different political parties jostling to succeed incumbent Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed for the event.
Over 200 participants from over 400 registered youths partook in an online poll conducted in picking the top six Guber candidates for the much-publicised Candidates’ Forum.
The result as obtained by newsheadline247 in the 12 day-poll conducted by the organisers, shows that the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Rasaq Atunwa and his All Progressives Congress (APC) counterpart, AbdulRazaq AbdulRahman were chosen by the entire 217 participants that participated in the poll given the duo 100% votes.
Other candidates picked by the Candidates’ Forum registered participants are Abdulazeez Oniyangi of the New Progressive Movement, NPM (184 votes), Comrade Isa Aremu of Labour Party, LP, (182 votes), Dr. Abdulmumin Yinka Ajia of Abundant Nigeria Renewal Party (ANRP) got 176 votes while Amb. Mohammed Abubakar Mohammed of the Alternate Party of Nigeria (APN) closed the top six ranking with 102 mentions.
The rest of the gubernatorial candidates were chosen by less than 60 participants.
In view of its transparency and democratization policy, the organisers, Hannis Institute for Development Studies (HIDS) resolve to provide level playing field to all the candidates asked registered participating youths to select at least 5 candidates of their choice whom they wish to interact with at the Candidates Forum.
In a letter sent to all participants through e-mails, Hannis stated that “The selection becomes imperative owing to the fact that the Forum is deliberately designed with a view to formulating a purposeful youth-oriented policy, which is drawn from interactive session between gubernatorial candidates and Kwara youths.”
Here is the full text of the letter sent to all registered participants;
Dear Registrants,
In view of the democratisation policy of the HIDS and our resolve to provide level playing field to all the candidates, registrants are hereby requested to select at least 5 candidates of their choice whom they wish to interact with at the Candidates Forum.
While the challenges of hosting all the candidates at the Forum is acknowledged, giving each of the candidates equal opportunity to interact with the youths becomes a herculean task which may be counterproductive to the realisation of the Forum’s theme
The selection becomes imperative owing to the fact that the Forum is deliberately designed with a view to formulating a purposeful youth-oriented policy, which is drawn from interactive session between gubernatorial candidates and Kwara youths.
To this end, registrants are therefore vested with the power to identify and select the gubernatorial candidates of their choice while we assure that the outcome of the poll will be respected.
Kindly follow this link to make your selection http://bit.ly/candidatesSelection
Signed.
As at the 19th of November 2018, specifically 430 youths have fully registered and made their intention known to participate in the unprecedented Kwara Governorship Candidates Forum. And 217 of them responded to the letter and SMS sent to them requesting for the selection of 5 candidates from the 32 contestants.
The opinion poll which began on 19th of November and ended on 30th of November produced six candidates chosen by registrants of the Forum.
