17 political parties, among which are the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), All Progressives Congress (APC) and Labour Party (LP), have kicked off campaign in the controversy-soaked Rivers State Local Government Elections, scheduled for August 30, 2025.
Geofrey Ngozi Woke, a Professor and Commissioner in charge of Political Parties Affairs / Monitoring/ Security at the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC), in a chat with Journalists in his Office in Port Harcourt on Monday, said, “Out of 19 political parties, what we have now on ground is 17 political parties.
“The political parties have also submitted their various aspirants for this election, ranging from councillors to chairmen.”
Woke noted that the Commission had started the screening of candidate-nominees last week, Thursday and Friday, adding, “As I speak to you now, we have concluded the screening. We hope that in the next two days, in a few hours to come, the list of successful candidates will be placed for them to know their place and positions.”
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He said the development was an indication that “We (RSIEC) don’t have any issues with any political parties, because we are not partisan. We are not interested in politics. But we are doing what we are supposed to do, following the RSIEC laws.”
Recall that two parties, the National Rescue Movement (NRM) and Action Alliance (AA), were initially stopped from submitting list of candidate-nominees by RSIEC, pending the resolution of party leadership tussle.
Woke, however, noted that both parties had resolved their issues, presented a unified leadership structure and subsequently allowed to submit a list of candidate-nominees by RSIEC, saying the only two parties that would not be participating in the elections are the Boot Party and African Democratic Congress (ADC).
“There are two parties that are not actually participating in this election. The Boot Party wrote a letter and said they are not interested because their case is already in court, and therefore, they don’t have a candidate.
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“ADC, we didn’t hear from them. That’s why I said out of 19 political parties, we have 17 political parties on the ground. We also have the APP (Action Peoples Party) participating,” Woke said.
He suggested that the Emeka Beke-led faction of the APC might have written to the Commission, but stressed that RSIEC is committed to the established timetable and to conducting free and fair elections for political parties that have shown interest in participating.
Despite talks of some persons going to Court to challenge the legality of the elections, likely to halt the conduct on August 30, 2025, Woke said that the Commission had not received any letters to that effect.
