The Independent National Electoral Commission (Independent National Electoral Commission) has started distributing sensitive election materials ahead of the Rivers South-East Senatorial District by-election scheduled for Saturday, 20 June 2026.
National and state officials of the commission were present at the Central Bank of Nigeria (Central Bank of Nigeria) office in Port Harcourt on Thursday to oversee the distribution as part of preparations for the poll.
The by-election was triggered by the death of Senator Barinada Mpigi in February 2026, which left the Rivers South-East Senatorial seat vacant.
Voting will be conducted across seven local government areas in the district: Khana, Gokana, Tai, Eleme, Andoni, Opobo/Nkoro and Oyigbo.
INEC also confirmed that four political parties have been cleared to contest the election. They are the Action Alliance (Action Alliance), All Progressives Congress (All Progressives Congress), Labour Party (Labour Party) and Peoples Democratic Party (Peoples Democratic Party).
A total of 858,573 registered voters are expected to participate across 1,629 polling units in 88 electoral wards.
The commission has also deployed 6,774 ad hoc staff to conduct the exercise, while the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) will be used for voter accreditation and verification.