The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has proposed middle of October to conduct the suspended re-run elections in Rivers State.
Commissioner in charge of Operations in INEC, Amina Zakari gave the hint yesterday, in Port Harcourt during a meeting with candidates and political party chairmen at the Rivers State office of the electoral body in Port Harcourt.
The Head of Operations at the national office of the electoral body, Zakari said that the elections in Rivers State were not inconclusive but suspended, adding that INEC will be free for elections after the Edo State governorship election slated for September.
“We are looking at mid October for the elections so that we can do the budget properly. The Edo State election is coming up in September. We need to recruit and train ad-hoc staff. We need to do this election conclusively,” she said.
She said that the essence of the meeting was to see how improvement could be made on areas that resulted in suspension of the exercise last time. Amina said that the re-run elections will be conducted in 22 constituencies in the state, adding that over voting, missing EC8A results, in some units were among several reasons the elections were suspended in the constituencies.
She also appealed to party leaders to prevail on their members to ensure that the elections were peaceful.
Meanwhile, the state Commissioner of Police, Mobolaji Odesanya has assured the meeting that the police will be professional in its during the elections.
Candidate of All Progressive Congress, APC in Rivers South senatorial district, Senator Magnus Abe and his PDP counter part, Senator Olaka Wogu called for a comprehensive information from INEC where elections will be conducted.
They also called for sanctions against those who violated rules for elections in the last rerun elections as a deterrent measure.