Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission, RSIEC, has acknowledged receipt of a list of candidates from the Emeka Beke-led faction of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in the state.
RSIEC’s Commissioner for Administration and Legal Services, Professor Chidi Haliday, who confirmed the development, said the commission only received the list for record purposes and not for recognition in the forthcoming council elections scheduled for August 30.
Professor Haliday, while stressing that electoral umpires were not expected to dabble into political party crises, explained that the commission had monitored the APC primaries and received the list of successful candidates without considering any factional disputes.
The primaries the electoral body had monitored was for the faction of the APC led by Tony Okocha.
He maintained that the commission did not monitor primaries conducted by the Beke faction of the APC and that the faction failed to meet the deadline for the submission of candidates and expression of interest forms.
Professor Haliday added that, as a result, their list could not be considered valid.
He further insisted that no court had the right to allegedly impose an executive on any political party.
Professor Haliday said, “This is a commission that works in order and we have our timelines.
“We had the stakeholders meeting on the 28 of July which we had a representative of the APC in that meeting if I understand you clearly.
“And secondly, on that same day, we had the expression of interest by political parties which APC expressed their interest to collect the form.
“And they sent their list of candidates, venue for their primaries, which this commission monitored.
“And we had candidates coming from APC without any factional disputes. So to us, you don’t by way, after the process, after the primaries is over, you can’t start submitting your list.”
He added, “APC had their primaries, picked up their expression of interest and with what they brought to us, we conducted the primaries.
“So anything that we are getting after the primaries that they had, and which other ones they must have submitted, we just take it for record purposes because it’s not within the timeline that we have provided.
“And to don’t start talking about faction. It’s not the responsibility of the commission to resolve factional disputes.”
Rivers LG poll: RSIEC invalidates candidate list by Beke-led APC
