Poll may be futile: Official

 By MALUM NALU
HELA provincial administrator William Bando says it may be a waste of time and resources to hold a by-election following the recent death of Governor Anderson Agiru.
He told The National yesterday that while holding the by-election was the prerogative of the Electoral Commission, there was little time to meet the July 27 deadline.
“By-election is the decision of the Electoral Commission,” Bando said.
“They will need about K10 million to fund the by-election. It’s up to the State if they want to put up that money to run a by-election – which has to happen before July 27. We simply don’t have time to prepare for the by-election.
“The common rolls have also got to be updated for 2017. There’s a lot of work involved and it’s up to the Electoral Commission to decide whether to hold a by-election or not.
“I think it’s a waste of time and resources. We now have a decision of the court restoring late Governor (Anderson Agiru) as the Governor. And now, members of the provincial assembly are talking about who will be the new Governor to take care of the province until 2017.”
He said Agiru was gone but his budget was still alive.
“As and when funding becomes available, we will implement it, out of respect for the man,” Bando said.