Rivers election body fixes LG polls Oct 5
The Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC), has fixed October 5 for the conduct of local government elections in the state.
RSIEC chairman, Justice Adolphus Enebeli (retd), announced the date at a stakeholders’ meeting in Port Harcourt yesterday.
“The aim of this meeting is to unveil the timetable and guidelines for the conduct of elections into the 23 local government councils in the state,” he said.
Enebeli said campaigns would take place between September 4 and October 3, while the elections would be held on October 5.
He urged political parties willing to participate in the exercise to obtain, complete, and submit their expression of interest forms to the commission, latest by July 15.
Enebeli said the commission was empowered by Section 5 of the RSIEC Law No 2 of 2018, to provide guidelines and to conduct local government elections in the state. He said only registered political parties could sponsor candidates for the elections by submitting duly completed expression of interest forms to the commission.
The chairman said the commission would not tolerate multiple nominations of candidates for one position during the process.
“Political parties that nominate multiple candidates for a particular position will be disqualified. Substitution of candidates will only be allowed if the first candidate withdraws or dies before the exercise,” he said.
Solsuema Osaro, chairman, Inter-party Advisory Council, said political parties were ready and expressed the hope that the commission would play the role of an unbiased umpire.
