Magnus Abe cast his ballot on Saturday in the Rivers South East senatorial bye-election. The NUPRC chairman voted at his polling unit in Bera Community, Gokana Local Government Area.
Abe spoke glowingly of the exercise after voting. He told journalists the election was peaceful, free, fair, and transparent.
"I want to commend INEC for what they have put together," Abe said. He urged residents to participate in large numbers.
According to him, Saturday's exercise marked a significant jump from 2023. Abe noted that technical problems plagued the last general election cycle.
"At the time, a lot of the machines didn't work, but now everything is working," he explained. He added that previous complaints couldn't happen today because the process had improved.
Abe represented Rivers South East in the Senate previously. He believes each election should outperform the last one, not regress.
Four parties fielded candidates for the seat on Saturday. They were Action Alliance, the All Progressives Congress, Labour Party, and the Peoples Democratic Party.
Douglas Fabeke Beeka ran for AA. Osarosaka Ebenezer Erewari represented the APC.
Sam Kinanee Barikpoa was Labour Party's candidate. Olaka Johnson Nwogu ran on the PDP platform.
Barry Mpigi's death in February created the vacancy. His passing left the senatorial seat empty.
Voting occurred across seven local government areas. The four Ogoni LGAs—Khana, Gokana, Tai, and Eleme—participated alongside Andoni, Opobo/Nkoro, and Oyibo.
INEC deployed the election across 1,629 polling units. These units were spread across 88 Registration Areas or wards.
Johnson Alalibo Sinikiem is INEC's Rivers State Resident Electoral Commissioner. He revealed that 6,774 ad hoc staff were mobilized for the exercise.
Voter accreditation relied on the Bi-Modal Voter Accreditation System. BVAS technology also handled voter verification during the process.
