Some international election observers on Sunday called
for the cancellation of the Governorship and House of Assembly elections in
Rivers.
The leader of African Centre for Leadership Strategies
and Development, Mr. Humphrey Bekaren, who spoke on behalf of the observers,
made the call in Port Harcourt, stating that the observers were shocked that
INEC disregarded the widely reported violent irregularities to begin the process
of declaring results in the state.
“We request all lovers of democracy to join us in
calling for the outright cancellation of the phony election.
“Unless this is done, we would have sown the seed that
could eventually grow into providing a shade of fear and death over us,” he
said.
According to Bekaren, what happened in Rivers was a
far cry from what election should be.
“What we saw did not meet international standard of
electioneering, not even the ones set by the Independent National Electoral
Commission INEC,'' he said.
He said there were reported incidents like deliberate
delays and diversion of electoral materials, attacks on electoral officers,
widespread arson and voter intimidation.
The Resident Electoral Commissioner for Rivers, Mrs.
Gesila Khan, said INEC cancelled election in centres with reported electoral
malpractices.
She said re-run elections took place in six local
government areas in the state where electoral malpractices were reported.
0 comments