20th May, 2011
Sixty political parties will participate in the Rivers state local government election that would be conducted by the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC) on Saturday May 21.
To be able conduct the elections RSIEC has engaged 16,000 ad hoc staff to cover the 21 local government councils excluding: Degema and Ogba|Egbema|Ndoni local Government Council areas that have subsisting Court Judgments that excluded them from the election.
Nimi Walson-Jack, the Commissioner For Enlightenment in RSIEC, who briefed a section of the press in Port Harcourt today said the commission will adopt Modified Open Secret Balloting so that eligible voters would be accredited from 9 am to 12:30 noon, with the election coming to an end in each Polling Unit as voting ends when the last person remaining in the queue casts his vote.
He explained further that although not all the 60 political parties fielded candidates, nevertheless, the logo of all the parties will be on the ballot paper.
Meanwhile, Sulieman Abba, the Commissioner of Police in Rivers who just came back from his temporary deployment from Lagos command for the general election, says that it has adequately prepared its personnel and about 20,000 other of security personnel in the state to ensure adequate security for voters.
By Okafor Ofiebor/Port Harcourt