27 Parties To Participate In Rivers LG Polls

Twenty-Seven political parties in Rivers State have indicated interest to participate in the local government council elections scheduled to hold in the state on May 23, this year.
The Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC) disclosed this in a statement issued in Port Harcourt yesterday by the commissioner  in-charge of media and public Affairs, Hon Ibiso Dakoru
The state electoral body said that 27 out o the 2 registered political parties in the country have collected and submitted expression of interest forms to the commission for participation in the council polls.
The parties, according to Dakoru, are to submit date, time and venue of their primaries to the RSIEC headquarters between Monday, April 27 and Tuesday April 28.
The elections are to hold in 22 of the 23 local government areas in the state, with the exception of Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area where the tenure of the council chairman, Hon Austin Ahiamadu will elapse latter in the year.
Hon Dakoru said the commission was committed to “free, fair, transparent and credible council elections”, and urged all the political parties to abide by the rules.
She also assured of the commitment of the security agencies and other stakeholders in ensuring elections in the state.
The Tide’s investigation, however, revealed that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) may have opted out of the council polls as the party had not collected the expression of interest forms as at last Friday when the collection and submission of the forms closed.
It would be recalled that the PDP had last Tuesday described the RSIEC’s plan to conduct the local government council elections few weeks to the expiration of Governor Chibuike Amaechi’s administration, as provocative and a waste of resources.
The party faulted the 14 days notice given to political parties by the RSIEC to conduct the council polls, saying the Electoral Act stipulates 90 days notice to political parties to conduct any election.
The PDP has, however, vowed not to participate in the scheduled council election.
The Special Adviser to the state PDP chairman on media and publicity, Jerry Needam, who disclosed this in Port Harcourt, at the weekend, described the “sudden announcement” of the local government council elections by RSIEC as the agenda of the All Progressives Congress in the state to rig it members into chairmanship and councillorship positions and thereby rob the people of the state the opportunity to chose their  true representatives at the local government level.
But the state chairman of APC, Chief Davies Ibiam Ikanya, described the PDP’s allegation as unsubstantiated.
Ikanya told journalists after a meeting he held with some APC stakeholders from Andoni Local Government Area, in Port Harcourt last Friday that the party decided to participate in the local government council elections after it found out that the time table released by RSIEC was in tandem with the amended state Electoral Act.
“We are ready for the forthcoming local government elections after finding out that the RSIEC election guideline is in line with the state electoral laws”, he said.

President-elect, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (left) in a handshake with President Goodluck Jonathan, during his official visit to the Presidential Villa in Abuja last Friday .With them is the former Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Abduhraman Dambazau.