Voter apathy was the hallmark of the Rivers State local government elections on Saturday conducted by the State Independent Electoral Commission, (RSIEC)
In most of the places visited by our correspondent, the turn out of voters was very poor as the election officials had little to do and were fiddling with their phones to keep busy.
Unarmed police officials were also present at the polling stations monitored, even as they had little or nothing to do as there was no crowd to control .
The election was generally peaceful especially as almost all the candidates ran unopposed having been allegedly hand picked by the Federal Capital Territory, (FCT) Minister, Nyesom Wike.
At Onne Ward in Eleme Local Government Area, the chairmanship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Obarilomate Ollor, who spoke to journalists after casting his vote at unit 21 Alejor, described the election as peaceful and well coordinated.
He also expressed confidence that he would clinch victory having worked hard to canvass for support.
“We have done a lot of campaigns and we have spoken to the people and they assured us that they will give us their mandate for second time to consolidate what we did during the first tenure
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“And from the vibes we got during the campaign and what you are seeing here today it shows clearly that the people are happy and prepared to vote us back into office”, he said.
He attributed the difficulty in locating the polling unit to the fact that it was newly created and urged the people to remain peaceful.
Meanwhile the king of Onne, Sunday Jiala, applauded the peaceful conduct of the elections.
In an interview at his palace in Onne, the royal father commended the police for working in synergy with the traditional institution to ensure that the election was peaceful particularly in Onne playing host to many multinational companies.
The king further appealed to his subjects to sustain the peaceful environment even after the results have been announced..
