Ahead of the 2027 common election, some stakeholders in Rivers State are demanding that election outcome 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, mentioned officers linked to the ruling occasion on the native authorities degree typically forestall opposition occasion brokers from accessing the centres.
“In many 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 mentioned.
He prompt another location for the train, urging the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to think about using Police Stations for outcome collation, with entry restricted to duly accredited occasion brokers.
The former LP chairman mentioned the relocation will promote transparency and shield the integrity of the method.
Reuben mentioned: “If INEC needs to make us imagine that the approaching election will probably be free, the election will probably be truthful and credible, the collation centres needs to be moved to Police Stations. The central police station in every native authorities needs to be the place the place election outcomes needs to 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, mentioned 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, mentioned: “We have since informed INEC that collation of outcomes shouldn’t be completed 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 sufficient measures to make sure this stuff don’t recur.
Meanwhile, a rights activist, Dr Omenazu Jackson, has referred to as on INEC to analyze the allegations and take correct motion.
Jackson, who warned political leaders to keep away from actions that might undermine the voters’s pursuits, burdened the necessity to shield voters forward of the 2027 election.
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