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By Paul Williams
No less than 17 political parties, among them, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), All Progressives Congress (APC), and Labour Party (LP), have submitted their list of candidate-nominees for chairmanship and councillorship positions in the August 30, 2025 Local Government elections in Rivers State.
Two other parties, National Rescue Movement (NRM) and Action Alliance (AA), were stepped down, by the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC), from submitting list of candidates due to leadership tussle within the parties, while Boot Party (BP) declined to participate in the polls.
RSIEC’s Commissioner in charge of Political Parties Affairs / Monitoring/ Security, Prof Godfrey Ngozi Woke, told our correspondent on Tuesday, August 5, 2025, that all the 17 parties fielded candidates for the chairmanship position of the 23 local government areas in the state, while not all of them (parties) could field councillorship candidate for all the wards in the state.
He said, “Out of the political parties, two have issue of who will become the leader of the party. So we said that we are not going to give them form (for participation) until we are able to resolve.
“We have almost 18 political parties now that have agreed to run the elections, including the APC and the PDP, Labour Party. In fact, all the parties have complied.
“As I talk to you now, the list (nominees) of all the parties are with us. We are trying to now shortlist their names for the screening that will come up on the 8th and 9th of this month. Thereafter, they become candidates of their parties, and they are now able to do their normal campaign as expected.
“We are on course, and we are believing that they will do the right thing. We are also doing the right thing, making sure that nobody will cause confusion,” he said.
Woke had last week informed newsmen that the commission will proceed with conduct of the local council polls on August 30 as scheduled.
He was responding to concerns over the timeframe for the elections and the 90-day notice. To which, he said 7th commission (at RSIEC) was only acting on the election notice earlier issued by the 6th commission.
Woke said the 6th commission had announced on March 5, 2025 of its plans to conduct council elections in the state, adding that since it was not challenged by any political party or individual that they would go ahead with the election.
He also pointed out that the new date still accommodated the 150 days window and added that the the previous announcement was still subsisting.
“We have not deviated. We are not starting a fresh. We are starting from where they stopped”, Woke said.
RSIEC Commissioner in Charge of Legal/ Administrative Matters,Chidi Haliday, pointed out that since there were no legal constraints, the commission could seamlessly go on with the elections as scheduled.
On the validity of Voter Registrar, Haliday said RSIEC will work with the one released by the Independent Electoral Commission, and will rely on INEC Headquarters, Abuja for direction or clarification in the event of any conflict regarding the conduct of the elections.
A source within the commission informed our correspondent that out of the two APC factions in the state, only that led by Tony Okocha has approached the commission for participation in the August 30 local council polls.
Spokesman of the rival faction led by Emeka Beke, Darlington Nwauju, had earlier expressed concerns over issues of timeframe for the elections and legality, suggesting a likely boycott.
