Ahead of the 2027 common election, some stakeholders in Rivers State are demanding that election consequence collation centres be relocated from the secretariat of native authorities councils to Police Stations.
They allege that brokers of opposition political events have been intimidated and denied entry to council secretariats in the course of the collation of election outcomes.
They additional alleged that, in some instances, election outcomes had been altered on the collation centres throughout earlier elections.
Speaking on this, former chairman of the Labour Party (LP) within the state, Prince Favour Reuben, stated officers linked to the ruling get together on the native authorities degree usually stop opposition get together brokers from accessing the centres.
“In a lot of the native authorities areas we monitored at the moment, they made positive brokers of opposition political events didn’t enter collation centres, and a number of the outcomes being collated had been modified in these collation centres.
“This is due to the fact that they have a monopoly over that centre, the local government. We saw what happened in 2023: at collation centres, every result was altered. It has been a recurring incident that once a result is collated in a local government where the ruling party is completely in charge, they will stop any other person from entering there,” Reuben stated.
He advised another location for the train, urging the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to think about using Police Stations for consequence collation, with entry restricted to duly accredited get together brokers.
The former LP chairman stated the relocation will promote transparency and defend the integrity of the method.
Reuben stated: “If INEC desires to make us consider that the approaching election might be free, the election might be truthful and credible, the collation centres must be moved to Police Stations. The central police station in every native authorities must be the place the place election outcomes must be collated.
“When it is a local government council, all the officials of the ruling party, all the people in charge will all have access to that place, intimidating the collation officers, intimidating opposition political parties.”
On his half, the secretary of the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC) within the state, Ben Ogbogbulam, stated opposition political events had already raised the difficulty with INEC and urged the fee to think about their request.
Ogbogbulam, who can be the chairman of Zenith Labour Party (ZLP) within the state, stated: “We have since instructed INEC that collation of outcomes shouldn’t be performed on the native authorities secretariats.
“That is the place they alter outcomes, and so they don’t enable brokers of different political events to have entry to what they’re doing. That is the place they manipulate the outcomes. We are conscious of what they’re doing to advert hoc staff. But this time, we’re taking enough measures to make sure these items don’t recur.
Meanwhile, a rights activist, Dr Omenazu Jackson, has referred to as on INEC to research the allegations and take correct motion.
Jackson, who warned political leaders to keep away from actions that would undermine the citizens’s pursuits, pressured the necessity to defend voters forward of the 2027 election.
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