A cross-section of Ministers observing ‘one minute silence’, during a special session of the Federal Executive Council meeting in honour of their late colleague, Minister of State for Labour and Employment, James Ocholi , in Abuja on Wednesday
Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for Rivers, Anieidi Ikoiwak, said on Wednesday that accreditation and voting for the March 19 re-run legislative elections would be done at the same time.
The commission will conduct elections in 22 of the 32 House of Assembly seats, 12 of the 13 House of Representatives seats and the three Senatorial Districts in the state.
Ikoiwak told newsmen in Port Harcourt that the exercise would start at 8 a.m. and end at 2 p.m. on Election Day.
“In terms of preparations, we are doing our best to ensure free, fair and credible elections on March 19.
“We are distributing non-sensitive materials now.
“We are waiting for the arrival of sensitive materials; that will be distributed on the morning of the elections,” he said.
Ikoiwak said that the election would last for seven hours to bridge the process of accreditation and voting.
“What this means is that accreditation and voting will start at 8 a.m. and end by 2 p.m. except for persons who arrived at the polling units before 2 p.m.
“But from then, nobody will be accredited or be allowed to vote,” he said.
According to the REC, the aim is to enable the commission collate and release the results in good time.
Ikoiwak refuted allegation that the list of ad hoc staff for the elections had been compromised.
He said that the commission wrote to federal agencies in the state to send a list of credible persons for ad-hoc elections duties.
“When the list was received, it was sent to Abuja for screening and background findings on the people in the list.
“When that is done, it will be sent back to us for deployment.
“Abuja can decide to remove some names if they are not credible,” he said.
