•Says Distribution of Sensitive Materials to Commence Tuesday
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has expressed it’s readiness for the upcoming Ondo State Governorship election.
The Chairman of the Commission, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, disclosed this in a statement via X on Thursday.
“Let me reassure stakeholders that INEC is ready for the election. We are deploying the BVAS machines for voter accreditation at polling units and for the upload of results to the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal.” he said.
Speaking further, the INEC Chairman listed measures that have been put in place to ensure transparency of the election, while noting that sensitive materials will be distributed from Tuesday.
“We have made every information about the election available to Nigerians. We have published the list of candidates, the number registered voters and the number of PVCs collected by polling units. We have made available the locations of voting and collation centres across the State.
“We have accredited observers and media organisations for the election. We have also accredited polling and collation agents and made the details public. On Tuesday this week, we visited many of our Local Government offices to assess their readiness for the election.
”We have test-run our election technology in preparation for the Election Day. We are deploying enough technical support staff to address any challenges that may occur. We have made arrangements for land and maritime transportation of personnel and materials.
“We have arranged for the delivery of sensitive materials for the election to arrive as early as Tuesday next week.”
“The 2024 Ondo State Governorship election is not just a national election, it is also of global interest. The Commission has accredited 111 domestic and international organisations deploying 3,554 observers for the election.
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We have similarly implemented other electoral activities, including voter registration and collection of Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs) as stated by the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in her welcome address. Two days ago, we uploaded to our website detailed information on the number of collected and uncollected PVCs for each of the 3,933 Polling Units in Ondo State.
In the information booklet distributed at this meeting, you will also see the number as well as distribution of the 2,053,061 registered voters by Local Government Area, gender, age, occupation and disability. You will also see the list of candidates, including names published by Court order. We conducted a series of stakeholders’ meetings at the national, State and Local Government levels, including meetings with the security agencies.
“We have also accredited over 100 radio, television, newspaper and online media organisations deploying about 700 personnel, including 129 female journalists, the largest number for any off-cycle Governorship elections in Nigeria. We have also accredited thousands of agents representing candidates and political parties for all the polling and collation locations across the State. I want to assure you that the accreditation cards for all categories of stakeholders are ready. Our State office here in Akure will soon commence the distribution of accreditation tags, including election duty vehicle stickers.” The statement read in part.
According to Yakubu, mock accreditation was conducted successfully across six local governments in three senatorial districts of the state yesterday.
“The purpose was to test-run our deployment of technology to safeguard the credibility of the election. I am glad to report that the mock was successful and the result can be viewed on the IReV portal.”
The chairman also noted that the machines used for the mock accreditation and the training of officials will not be used on election Day.
“We have sufficient machines for the election which have been configured for voter accreditation and the upload of result distinct from those used for mock accreditation and training.”
Mahmood further urged political parties to refrain their supporters from disruptive behaviours.
”However, our role has to be complemented by all stakeholders. I urge Political parties to continue to restrain your supporters from any disruptive behaviour.
“We have produced accreditation tags for all your agents bearing their names, photographs and location of deployment. We have also added a QR code to the tags that can be read even from mobile phone applications.
“The practice of issuing party tags without name, photograph or location of posting to party agents must stop.
“That is how in some polling and collation locations, we have impersonators where two or more people claim to be agents of one Political Party, sometimes resulting in unnecessary disagreement among themselves or with agents of other parties leading to disruption of processes.
“I urge Political Parties to follow the example of other accredited observers and the media by using the tags issued by the Commission and displaying the same at all voting and collation locations.”