TheCable

Collation of results is still underway four days after residents of Rivers state went to the polls to elect their lawmakers.

The election held in three senatorial districts, eight federal constituencies, and 10 state constituencies.

While the Independent National electoral Commission (INEC) has declared winners in the senatorial election, there are outstanding results in the federal and state constituencies.

The election was a topical issue during the weekend, and even on Monday, #RiversRerun trended on social media.

But the interest in the election has since reduced.

Journalists who converged on the state from different parts of the country have returned to their base, while some INEC officials who were moblilised to Rivers from Abuja have also left.

The commission has attributed the delay in announcing winners to widespread violence.

Mustapha Lecky, INEC national commissioner in charge of south-south, said this at a press conference.

Lecky had earlier expressed confidence that the collation process would not exceed Monday.

“We are determined and confident that we will conclude the process on Monday and it will not go beyond that day,” he had said.

But speaking at a press conference late Monday, the national commissioner said election had not been concluded in some areas as a result of violence.

“Violence in Etche local government area affected the conclusion of the election in the area,” he said.

“As a result, we were not able to conclude the outstanding re-run election in Etche, pending further announcement from INEC. As regards the issue of Andoni, which is also outstanding, we had a lot of difficulties due to lots of violence.

“We went back there several times and up till this moment, we had a meeting with Andoni stakeholders and we have agreed that we can reset the collation.”

As of Tuesday night, INEC was making plans to conduct election in Etche the next day.

So far, 12 results have been made public, with the PDP taking seven, leaving its opponent with five.

PDP won two seats in the senate, while APC has one. Of the five results declared in the house of reps, PDP has 3, and APC 2.

There is a tie at the state house of assembly, where four results have been announced. Both parties have two each.