15 Political Parties to Boycott Rivers LG Election

Out of the 27 political parties to participate in the Saturday, May 23 local government election in Rivers State, 15 political parties in Rivers State under the aegis of concerned political parties have revealed plans to boycott the election.

The parties in a communiqué read by the chairman of the Labour Party, Prince Favour, said they have lost confidence in the ability of the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC) to conduct a free and fair election.

He alleged that RSIEC had allowed the All Progressives Congress (APC) to breach its deadline by conducting primary election in Oyigbo on Tuesday which was four days into the election which he said was illegal and unacceptable.

Favour said: “We have earlier accepted to participate in the local government election organized by RISIEC with the understanding that all condition precedence including the obligations of the commission to the political parties will be met. The facts on ground showed that RISIEC is unprepared and insincere in the processes for the conduct of the election. And as a result, we have lost confidence in its ability to conduct a free and fair election. Also, while the RSIEC had claimed that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had released its official voter’s register to them, the INEC had informed the public that no such register has been released to RSIEC. This is an outright deceit and embarrassing.”

The statement however called on RSIEC to postpone the election and maintain status quo in obedience to the court order restraining INEC from issuing the voter’s register.

“We call on RSIEC to postpone the election or set aside the processes as the APC is still conducting primary election after the deadline. INEC should also comply with the ruling of the federal high court to maintain the status quo restraining it from releasing the current voter’s register in the state to RSIEC,” he added.