Rivers LG Poll lacks credibility – Peoples Advocates.

An Election observer group known as the People’s advocate which monitored Saturday’s local government elections in Rivers State has stated that the electoral process was not a credible one due to the irregularities that occurred during the process.

The irregularities included absence of result sheets, violence and improper collation process, amongst others.

The highly spoken about election was held across 23 local government areas in Rivers State, despite various moves by the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Minister Nyesom Wike, to derail the exercise.

Governor Sim Fubara however went ahead with the poll, defying a court order which restricted the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission, RSIEC, from conducting the election..

However, reports from the election observer commended the Rivers electoral commission for conducting the election despite the several irregularities.

The report read, “While we appreciate the effort of RSIEC to conduct this election at such a tough time as this in the political history of Rivers State, we believe that there is need for improvements in order to set a fair playing ground for all political parties and candidates in order to ensure a free and fair election.”

“At Phalga LGA, D. Line Ward 1 units 8,9,10; Ward 4 units 48, 49, 50, 51; Ogbunabali Ward 3, Ward 2, Oroworukwu Ward 9 units 5,6,7,8,9 etc, the absence of Result Sheet undermined the credibility of the process because Agents of Labour Party and other interested Political Parties asked for Result Sheets and moved to stop the polls if the Result Sheets weren’t produced.

“This systemic flop of RSIEC affected the credibility of the polls and risked the life of the Ad-hoc staff.”

“The Manual Voting process of RSIEC and use of incident form is archaic and prone to manipulations. Electronic Voting and transmission of results is the best way to go in order to have a credible free and fair elections wherein the votes of the electorates or voters will truly count.”

“Materials did not arrive in time or at all in some polling units and cubicles were not used for secret balloting. The implication is that such open balloting may sway the votes of electorates who may suffer reprisal attacks if they don’t vote a particular party or candidate.

“Our Situation Room observed that the process did not create any solid internal mechanism for grievance or dissent before the results are announced. Such pattern may encourage violence or discourage genuine candidates who have legitimate complaint.

“Irregularities in some polling units should be addressed before results are announced. This is to avoid announcing results in polling units where elections did not hold or where the election was fraught with fraud, snatching of ballot materials, violence etc. and some of such incidents were witnessed in this election and the candidates affected, would be left with the only option of going to court.

“This is a systemic flaw, capable of occasioning injustice.

“Our observers were lost as to where your Ward and State Collation should take place and who is allowed into your “holy sanctuary” to witness the collation and how you arrived at your results.

“A closed collation process is prone to manipulations and should be avoided. Cumulated Results should be fact-checked with polling unit results for credibility. The truth is that the entire election lacks credibility.”

“The entire process is skewed to favor the candidate or party of the Government in power. If the Government of the day was in a good relationship with PDP, PDP would have won the entire seats.

“Such a pattern stiffens fair competition and churns out unpopular or incompetent leaders who may just be enjoying political patronage or settlement.”

The Peoples Advocates also suggested a number of recommendations to the Rivers electoral commission in order to ensure a more credible election process.

“Result sheets should be provided in all the polling units to ensure a credible process and also ensure the safety of ad-hoc staff. Rivers State Electoral Laws be amended to adopt electronic voting. Cubicles should be provided in all polling units in the circumstance of manual voting. Rivers State Electoral Laws and RSIEC guidelines should make room for practical grievance mechanisms (especially in cases of overwhelming evidence of irregularities) before election results are announced in order to encourage genuine aspirants.”

Other recommendations are, “The Collation process should be more transparent and open to all. Ad-hoc staff should be appropriately trained and should be advised to only close polls at the closing time stipulated by RSIEC. A fair playing ground should be set for all candidates to have a fair chance of winning. Democracy is a government of the people not a government of the government by the government and for the government.”

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