Brave Dickson
Fear of violence has been indicated as major reason for the voter apathy that characterised the March 9 governorship and house of assembly elections in Rivers State.
According to the Chancellor, International Society for Social Justice and Human Rights, Dr Omenazu Jackson, the death toll witnessed in some parts of the state during the just concluded presidential and national assembly elections is still fresh on the minds of the electorates.
“Voters this time around don’t want to lose their lives because of politicians who do not even have their interest at heart.
“The killings that happened in the February 23 national elections are still fresh on the minds of Rivers people,”he said
Dr Jackson therefore maintained that until perpetrators of election violence are punished in accordance with the law to serve as deterrence to others, voter apathy will always be associated with the country’s elections.
In Phalga ward four from unit 11 to 17, our correspondent gathered that party supporters were lobbying electorates to vote for their candidates as there were no voters’ queue at about 12noon.
However, some electorates who lend their thoughts to the high level of voter apathy in last Saturday’s state elections attributed it to lack of popular state opposition candidates.
They said,”what even made the AAC to emerge second in several polling units in the state was as a result of support it enjoyed from APC members loyal to transport minister, Rotimi Amaechi.
“Many PDP members refused to come out and vote because they didn’t see any strong and popular candidates to challenge PDP candidates”.
Unlike the February 23 presidential and national assembly elections where the Peoples Democratic Party won in all the units, the ruling party in the state lost both governorship and assembly elections to the Africa Action Congress in unit 17 of Phalga ward four due to what some described as overbearing influence of APC supporters there.
Phalga Ward four governorship results
Unit 11: PDP 62 AAC 22
Unit 12: PDP 48 AAC 35
Unit 13: PDP 35 AAC 17
Unit 14: PDP 77 AAC 26
Unit 15: PDP 75 AAC 26
Unit 16: PDP 33 AAC 21
Unit 17: PDP 8 AAC 16
house of assembly results
Unit 11: PDP 62 AAC 21
Unit 12: PDP 46 AAC 31
Unit 13: PDP 37 AAC 15
Unit 14: PDP 75 AAC 23
Unit 15: PDP 69 AAC 29
Unit 16: PDP 33 AAC 19
Unit 17: PDP 8 AAC 15 respectively.
TPCN shall bring you more details of the results as they unfold.
