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•Campaigns starts Sept 4, election holds Oct 5
Emma Sunday
The Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC) has fixed October 5, 2024 as date for the conduct of local government elections across in the state.
Chairman of the Commission, Justice Adolphus Enebeli (Rtd.), disclosed this while unveiling the elections’ timetable and guidelines during a stakeholders meeting in Port Harcourt on Monday.
Justice Enebeli disclosed that elections’ campaigns is slated to start from Thursday, September 4 and end on Thursday, October 3, 2024.Enebeli, further disclosed that registered political parties willing to participate in the exercise are expected to obtain, complete and submit their expression of interest forms to the commission on or before Monday, July 15, 2024.
The RSIEC Chairman told the stakeholders that, “In exercise of the Powers conferred on the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC) by Section 5 of the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission Iaw No 2 of 2018 and all other powers enabling it to provide guidelines to political parties, stipulating the rules and procedure for electioneering campaigns for the 2024 Local Government Council Elections and any Run-off(s), Re-run(s) and Bye-election (s) that may arise therefrom, the Commission hereby makes the following Rules and guidelines.
“There shall be Local Government Council Elections on Saturday the 5th October, 2024 in all the 23 Local Government Areas listed in the 2nd column of the Table and the first schedule to these guidelines, in which: (a) One councillor shall be elected in each ward. (b) A Chairman and Vice Chairman shall be elected for each of the Local Government Areas.
“Criteria for Participation Political Parties in Nigeria shall be eligible to sponsor candidates in the 2024 Local Government Council elections provided that such political parties complete and submit an Expression of Interest Form to participate in the elections on or before Monday, 15th July, 2024.
”Reiterating the stipulations of the timetable and guidelines, Enebeli emphasised that political parties that nominate multiple candidates for a particular position would be disqualified, adding that substitution of candidates would only be allowed if the first candidate withdraws or dies before the exercise.
On the guidelines for the election, he said “The Campaign period shall begin from Thursday, 4th September, 2024 and ends on Thursday, 3 October 2024. For the avoidance of doubt, there shall be no radio or television jingles, media statements, releases, news or advertisements, rallies, gatherings or open meeting, with effect from midnight of Thursday, 3rd October, 2024.
“A political party candidate or supporters shall not use any property or house belonging to the government before the election and shall not also convene any meeting in public buildings or places of worship.
“The campaigns of a political party or candidate shall not be disrupted or obstructed by another political party or candidate. In order to avoid conflicts, every political party shall.”
He added that, “Prohibition of double nomination, No person shall nominate more than one candidate for the post of Councillor or Chairman, except when the first nominated candidate dies before the election or withdraws from the election or the nomination is not accepted as valid.
“No person who has subscribed a nomination paper as a nominator may, so long as the candidate stands nominated, withdraw his or her nomination.”
On his part, Rivers State Chairman of Inter-party Advisory Council, IPAC, Solsuema Osaro, said the political parties in the state are ready to participate in the forthcoming elections, thanking the state Governor, Sir Siminalayi Fubara for creating a level playing field for a free and fair elections.
“I want to assure the general public that the political parties in Rivers State under the auspices of the Inter party Advisory Council are prepared and ready to contest this election, we also have taken a good note of the fact that the this present RSIEC, His Lordship, Honourable Justice Adolphus Enebeli, (Retired) is a man of integrity and we believe that he would bring that astute being into play.
“Secondly, we also believe that the enabling environment we have today to participate in this election is already created by the Governor of Rivers State, who Isa man of his word, a principled man, a humane minded man, a man loves fairness, genuineness equity to prevail in the land.”
Osaro, however begged the commission allow political merchants and imposters to cause commotion in the political parties by hijacking the parties midway, as was witnessed in previous council elections.
“In the last dispensation, we saw a RSIEC that polarised political parties, that balkanised political parties, that allowed imposters, intruders, interlopers to get involved in the electoral processes, thereby giving it a bad name.
“So our concern today as tabled and we’ll received, is that RSIEC should not allow interlopers, imposters to come up and claim to be stake chairmen or claim to be local government chairmen, thereby creating crisis in the parties, if such is experiences that we have in the past occurs this time, it will not speak well.”
