By Prof. Protus Nathan Uzorma
There is a profound difference between conducting an election and conducting a democratic election. An election is an event; democracy is a process. It requires preparation, participation, consultation, organisation and, above all, confidence among the people who are expected to participate in it. This is why I respectfully appeal to His Excellency, Senator Hope Uzodimma, to reconsider the present timetable for the forthcoming Imo State local government elections and allow political parties and citizens more time to prepare. The Imo State Independent Electoral Commission (ISIEC), headed by Chief Charles Ejiogu, has now announced Saturday, 26 September 2026, for elections into the 27 local government chairmanship positions and 305 councillorship seats across 4,758 polling units.
I make this appeal neither as a spokesman for any political party nor as an advocate for any particular candidate, but simply as a concerned citizen of Imo State who believes that democracy must be given sufficient breathing space to flourish. The issue before us is not whether the election should hold; it should. The issue is whether enough time has been provided for all interested political actors, particularly parties outside the ruling establishment, to organise themselves effectively and participate meaningfully. Even where the law permits an electoral commission to fix a date, wisdom requires that the date should also promote inclusiveness, fairness and confidence.
The great political philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau taught us, in substance, that legitimate political authority derives from the people and their collective will. If the people are the ultimate source of political legitimacy, then every electoral process must create reasonable opportunities for them to organise, deliberate and make informed choices. Local government elections are not insignificant elections. They concern the tier of government closest to the ordinary citizen—the council chairman who deals with the local community, the councillor who represents the ward, and the grassroots structures through which government reaches villages and neighbourhoods.
To ask political parties and aspirants to mobilise, consult their supporters, organise agents, communicate policies, coordinate logistics and prepare their structures within an extremely compressed period risks reducing democratic participation to a race that only the already organised can realistically run. Democracy, as John Stuart Mill argued in his reflections on representative government, is not merely about choosing rulers; it is also a means through which citizens develop the capacity to participate in public affairs. That democratic capacity cannot be adequately exercised where the electoral calendar leaves little practical room for participation. Indeed, even INEC’s national electoral practice recognises the importance of carefully structured timetables: for major elections, activities are spread over substantial periods, allowing parties and electoral stakeholders to complete different stages of the process.
There is also a compelling precedent within Imo State itself. In preparation for the 2024 local government elections, ISIEC reportedly issued a 60-day election notice to registered political parties before the poll. That precedent makes the present compressed timetable worthy of sober reconsideration. If sixty days could be accommodated previously, why should Imo now be required to move with such extraordinary speed? I respectfully submit that there is no prize for conducting a local government election in the shortest possible time. The prize should be for conducting an election that is credible, inclusive, peaceful and accepted by the people.
The fact that ISIEC says its 360-day notice was issued on 18 September 2025 pursuant to Section 28(1) of the Electoral Act does not, in my view, remove the wisdom of providing practical and detailed notice of the actual polling date to political parties and stakeholders. An election is much more than a date on a calendar. Behind every candidate is a political structure; behind every political structure are human beings; and behind every human being are hopes, resources, consultations and expectations. When the timetable becomes too compressed, those without established machinery may find themselves effectively excluded-not necessarily by law, but by circumstances. That is precisely the kind of exclusion a mature democracy should consciously avoid.
I therefore appeal to Gov Hope Uzodimma not as an opponent, but as a citizen appealing to a leader whose administration has made efforts in several areas of governance and whose political legacy is still being written. Every administration eventually becomes a chapter in the history of its state, and the manner in which elections are conducted often becomes one of the most enduring judgments by which that administration is remembered. The governor has an opportunity to demonstrate that his commitment to democracy is not merely about holding an election but about creating the conditions for genuine democratic participation.
Aristotle understood politics as the ordering of the affairs of the community toward the common good. The common good, therefore, should be the guiding principle here. If extending the timetable by several weeks would enable more political parties to organise, more candidates to communicate their programmes, more citizens to understand their choices and more stakeholders to develop confidence in the process, then such an extension would not be a weakness. It would be an act of democratic statesmanship. I equally appeal to the Chairman of ISIEC, Chief Charles Ejiogu, and the members of the Commission to place this concern before the governor and other relevant authorities. The Commission should not merely be concerned with whether an election can technically be conducted; it should also be concerned with whether the circumstances surrounding it inspire public confidence.
Governor Uzodimma, Imo is not running away; democracy is not running away; and the people of Imo are not asking that the election be cancelled. They are simply asking that democracy be given enough time to breathe. Please, Your Excellency, reconsider the present timetable. Give political parties and candidates additional time-preferably at least one month from the formal announcement of the final election date-to organise themselves properly and give the electorate a meaningful opportunity to listen, compare and choose.
Let the election be remembered not for the speed with which it was conducted but for the fairness, openness and credibility with which it was conducted. A rushed election may produce winners, but a well-prepared election produces legitimacy. As Amartya Sen has repeatedly emphasised in his democratic thought, public reasoning and participation are central to the meaning of democracy.
Imo State deserves nothing less. Your Excellency, you have an opportunity to make this local government election another testimony to democratic development in Imo State. Please do not allow an unnecessarily hurried electoral timetable to cast a shadow over the good efforts of your administration. Extend the time. Let every political party prepare. Let every candidate organise. Let every voter understand the choices before them. Let Imo go to the polls with confidence-not confusion, haste or apprehension. Democracy is too precious to be rushed.