Electorate Want Peaceful Rerun Polls

As the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) prepares for next month’s conclusion of the suspended legislative elections in Rivers State, the electorate have urged the political parties to sensitise their members on the need to remain peaceful during and after the elections.

Those who spoke with our political correspondent last Friday stressed the need for political parties to educate their members and supporters on the need to shun violence during the elections and after.

They exonerated the INEC for delaying the conclusion of the poll in Rivers State since after March 19th, said no good manager would want to send her staff to a violence prone area to die.

According to them,’’ No sane officer would want to risk the lives of her officers in the name of conducting and supervising elections.

Douglas Toukugba,Oscar Briade, Onyegbule Martins and Kingsley Wuche advised that if the political parties educate their members to remain peaceful, the police would have less work and the process of the election would be easier.

A civil servant, Kingsley Wuche advised the security agencies to do their work properly rather than connive with thugs and hoodlums to disrupt elections and create crisis in wards and units.

A trader, Onyegbule Martins said it also need a lot of assurance on the part of the INEC to convince the youth corp member to engage in the exercise, stating that nobody would want to risk his or her life because of elections, due to the past experiences.

They however advised that those flash points and violence prone areas should be raided and cleared of arms before the elections, adding that this will guarantee the electorate to go out and vote and remove any doubt of fear on them

‘’ If members and supporters were not educated on the need to go about a free, fair elections, we may return to the starting point’’, they said.

They noted that election should not be a do or die affair. “It is a game and they should allow the will of God to prevail.

Meanwhile some political parties in the state said they would commence meetings if it is clear that INEC is ready to conclude the elections.

The Political parties include Social Democratic Party (SDP), New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP), Fresh Party and Hope Democratic Party. They said they were yet to get formal notifications from the electoral body that the rerun poll will be concluded by December 10th. When we are informed consultations and preparations would commence.”