By Ayo Yusuf
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will deploy 46,084 regular and ad hoc staff for November’s governorship elections in Imo, Bayelsa, and Kogi states.
The Chairman of the Commission, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, said this at a meeting with Resident Electoral Commissioners (REC) at the INEC Conference Room, Abuja on Friday.
According to him, the three elections will involve 5,409,438 registered voters in 10,510 polling units across 649 electoral wards in 56 local government areas.
He added that so far, all non-sensitive materials for the elections have been delivered to the states.
While noting that other preparatory activities, including training, are on course, Prof. Yakubu said that valuable lessons have been learnt from the 2023 General Election for improved performance in the forthcoming exercise.
He also said that INEC has so far accredited 126 national and international organisations collectively deploying 11,000 observers for the elections which are three weeks away.
“Although the portal for media accreditation closes on Tuesday 24th October 2023, we have received applications from 80 media organisations seeking to deploy 1,203 personnel made up of journalists and technical/support staff to report on the elections.
“The 18 political parties participating in the elections are deploying 137,934 agents made up of 130,093 polling and 7,841 collation agents. We are also finalizing arrangements for vehicles and boats for land and maritime movement of personnel and materials,” the INEC chief added.
Prof. Yakubu restated that the Commission is concerned about the prevailing insecurity and election-related violence in the three states elections will be taking place.
“We have been reassured of adequate deployment by the security agencies. On our part, we will continue to deepen our engagement with the security agencies, and more meetings are planned in the next few days.
“Similarly, the Commission will hold a series of meetings with stakeholders at the national level in addition to ongoing engagements at the state level,” he said.
