About 25 civil society organizations and observers who monitored the last local government elections have commended the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC) for conducting free, fair, and credible elections in the state.
The group, under the aegis of Coalition of Accredited Civil Society Organization Observation/Monitors said they observed that despite the adequate logistic arrangement made by the commission, sensitive electoral materials did not arrive in time in Khana, Omuma, Opobo/Nkoro, Akuku-Toru and some parts of Oyigbo local government areas.
While addressing journalists on Wednesday, Chairman of the group, Dr Omemazu Jackson and Secretary, Chief Boniface Okafor, said despite the late arrival of materials and the early down pour, the electorate were enthusiastic to cast their votes.
According to him, “though some political parties did not participate in the local government election, this, in law does not invalidate the credibility of the election’’.
They  observed that the election was generally peaceful, orderly and non-violent, and commended the commission for conducting peaceful and credible local government election in Rivers State, just as they lauded Rivers State Government for providing the enabling environment for RSIEC to do its job in accordance with the law.
They also commended the security agencies in the state for living up to their responsibility during the election.
‘’The coalition is made up more than 25 civil society organizations accredited for the purpose of observing the democratic process in Rivers State and other parts of the country. The coalition arrived the state from different parts of the country, and did a preliminary observation of the preparation made by RSIEC. We, indeed, received the cooperation of the commission in this regard’’, they said.