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From Tony John, Port Harcourt
Residents of Ahoada East and Khana Local Government Areas (LGAs) in Rivers State have expressed concerns about the February 21 bye-elections held to fill vacant seats in the State House of Assembly.
Some of the electorate saw the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the primary party participating, with other major opposition parties not on the ballot for the state assembly seats.
Reactions from the two LGAs showed that the turnout, which appeared reasonable to some extent, was drawn largely from one particular political party (APC).
Speaking on the polls, a voter identified in Khana LGA as Loveday Baridam described the election as “carry go” because there were no contending candidates.
He said, “We can say the election is peaceful because it is like a family affair. Where there is one candidate, the outcome would be ‘carry go’. That is why the exercise is peaceful.
“Assuming other major political parties like the PDP, ADC and Labour Party participated, it would be a different story. So, nobody expects anything different from what has happened.”
Another voter, who simply gave her name as Matilda, attributed the peaceful conduct of the election in Khana LGA to only one party (APC) contesting.
“We are all from a party, and you wouldn’t expect there to be a crisis. The exercise went on smoothly. It was a seamless exercise.”
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Meanwhile, hours after the conclusion of the bye-elections, the results were yet to be released at the time of filing this report.
Voting commenced in both areas, with attention now shifting to result collation in Khana Constituency II.
Rivers State Governor Siminalayi Fubara had earlier urged residents to participate peacefully and described the election as a “family affair”, calling for support for the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidates.
Some residents were of the view that insufficient public awareness and the disqualification of major opposition parties like the PDP, ADC and Labour Party from fielding candidates made the bye-elections not free and fair.
However, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) excluded the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), African Democratic Congress (ADC) and Labour Party (LP) from the Rivers State bye-elections due to procedural and legal issues.
According to INEC, the PDP did not conduct valid primary elections for the constituencies and therefore failed to produce a candidate.
INEC said the ADC conducted primaries but failed to upload the results to its headquarters’ portal within the stipulated time frame, which is a requirement by law.
The Labour Party was excluded because it cited ongoing internal litigation affecting its nomination process.
The commission emphasised that these exclusions were purely procedural and based on the parties’ failure to meet the stipulated requirements and deadlines outlined in the Electoral Act and INEC guidelines.
