The Abia State chapter of Young Progressive Party, YPP, has announced that it would not participate in the May 19 local government elections holding in the state on Friday.

The party described the elections as an exercise not backed by both the State House of Assembly and courts of law and, therefore, not worth participating in.

In a statement on Wednesday, which was signed by the party’s Publicity Secretary, Bestman Eruba, YPP chided the Abia State Independent Electoral Commission, ABSIEC, for going ahead with the chairmanship and councillorship polls without first vacating court orders restraining it from conducting the exercise.

The party, while saying that it did not sell expressions of interest forms for the local government elections, advised its members who were interested in participating in the polls to jettison it while advising its supporters against participating.

The party further alleged that the 2022 appropriation bill of Abia State, as approved by the Abia State House of Assembly, did not approve a financial vote backing local government elections.

It also wondered why the Abia electoral umpire waited for the last moments of the outgoing administration before conducting local government polls, arguing that the proposed exercise would waste taxpayers’ money.