International observers call for cancellation of Rivers’ Gov & Assembly result

Port Harcourt – 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.
He said 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. (NAN)