PORT HARCOURT, Rivers State — The Rivers State South-East Senatorial District by-election was peaceful and orderly despite network challenges affecting the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and low voter turnout caused by a downpour across the state, according to local government chairmen who monitored the exercise.
Dr Thomas Barere, Chairman of Khana Local Government Area, spoke with journalists on Saturday after casting his vote at Unit 4, Ward 18, in Khana. He described the exercise as smooth and commended residents for coming out to vote because they understand the importance of their votes.
“As the chief security officer of the local government, our situation room is active and receiving reports from different locations to enable us respond promptly to any emergency,” Barere said. He attributed the BVAS malfunction in some areas to a general network problem but expressed confidence that technical personnel and officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission addressed the situation.
Similarly, the Chairman of Opobo/Nkoro Local Government Area, Mr James James, expressed satisfaction with the turnout of voters and the peaceful atmosphere across polling units. “From what I have seen so far, the process is seamless. There are no security threats or any form of disruption to the electoral process,” he said.
James commended residents for coming out in large numbers to exercise their civic responsibility despite the prevailing weather conditions and urged INEC to sustain fairness and equity in the conduct of elections.
Barere noted that election observers from various organisations had visited polling units across the area and expressed satisfaction with the conduct of the exercise. The local government administration is closely monitoring developments to ensure a hitch-free process.
The by-election is being conducted to fill the vacant South-East Senatorial District seat in Rivers State. Despite the challenges posed by the weather and network issues affecting the BVAS machines, officials reported that the election proceeded without major security incidents or disruptions.
The peaceful conduct of the by-election has been welcomed by stakeholders who have called on INEC to continue improving the electoral process and ensuring that technology deployed for elections is resilient to network challenges. For now, residents of the South-East Senatorial District have exercised their franchise, and the results are expected to be announced in due course.
