The Commissioner in charge of administration and legal matters, Rivers state Independent Electoral Commission, RSIEC, Prof. Chidi
Halliday, has reiterated that no candidate had been handpicked by the commission to be chairman or councillor in the forthcoming local government elections in the state.
The commissioner stated this while responding to questions raised and fears expressed by some guests that candidates have been handpicked by RSIEC to be chairmen and councillors before the August 30 council elections and that the election has already been concluded. Also, the commission was bias and using fake voters register, during a town hall meeting organised by Rivers Peace Initiative in collaboration with Super 92.3 GM Port Harcourt and Centre for Peace and Security Studies, University of Port Harcourt, on Friday.
He said that all the issues raised and fears expressed were not true, noting that doing so would amount to causing chaos in the state.
He pointed out that the problem most Rivers people have is that they work on feelings and not on reality.
His words, “The voters register is as authentic as it can be. The voters register that we are using for this election was obtained from INEC, certified, so there is nothing like whether RSIEC is ready to conduct free and fair election. I have the best assurances of the Chairman that RSIEC as constituted, is there to conduct free, fair and credible elections.
” We didn’t give any timeline for a given political party. Everything that we are doing we’re guided by the law and by the rules and we have kept to that without any bias.
“On the question of two chairmen whether for Labour or APC, let me draw our attention that it is not the responsibility of RSIEC to register political parties. And for this exercise, this election, we’ve not had any faction. Those that collected the expression of interest form and those that we gave the forms to, they brought their list of candidates. And let us take to mind that you don’t contest election because you are a member of a political party, you must be a product of primaries that was conducted by a political party, monitored by RSIEC and the ones we’ve for APC, the candidate that they brought that emerged from their primaries after taking the expression of interest form are those that we screened. We are not aware of any faction since that is not for us to resolve. That is the same thing with Labour party. We went as much as possible to take a decision that since it is political parties that contest elections, the candidates are best, vehicles, all parties that collected expression of interest forms, their logos will be on the ballot papers. When they contest, if they win, they resolve the one that is their candidate . If it is not resolved in their favour, it is not the business of RSIEC.
“On election petition, among the process of election is making provision for election petition and the good thing I need to bring to our attention is contrary to 30 days that was meant for filing of petitions against any under the RSIEC law 2018. Under the subsidiary instrument, you file your election petition five (5) days after the declaration of the results. Some of the guidelines have been limited so that dispute will be quickly resolved. Soonest the chief judge will constitute the election tribunals. We’re quite ready. We’re not the gladiators or players. Ours is to stay and watch.
“When you look at the level of preparedness. On the issue of non sensitive area, I think we are 100 percent prepared. And to affirm our level of preparedness, the House of Representatives committee on oversight functions on the Rivers state emergency rule led by the chairman, the leader of the house of Reps, paid us a visit, had an oversight with us and the time they spent with us, they left congratulated not only the commission but Rivers people.
“For us in the commission, we have created a level playing environment. There is no impartiality in what we are doing, nothing is hidden. We’re working on the ethos of transparency. But as much as possible, we request and desire constructive opinion, advice and those that are participating, let them participate well. For us as Rivers people, there is no going back. We can’t be talking about the election should hold or not. What we should do is that what we should for this election to be a success”.
The event was attended by members of the civil society organisations, media practitioners, youths group, students and security agencies.
