In preparation for the governorship elections in Imo, Bayelsa, and Kogi states in November, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) plans to deploy 46,084 permanent and ad hoc staff members to pilot the electoral process.
Mahmood Yakubu, the Commission’s chairman, stated as much on Friday (Oct. 20, 2023) at a meeting with the Resident Electoral Commissioners (REC) in the INEC Conference Room in Abuja.
He states that 5,409,438 registered voters from 10,510 voting places spread over 649 electoral wards in 56 local government areas would participate in the three elections.
He continued by saying that all non-sensitive election materials had already been sent to the states.
On Friday, October 20, 2023, INEC Chairman Mahmood Yakubu met with Resident Electoral Commissioners in the INEC Conference Room in Abuja.
Yakubu stated that important lessons were learned from the 2023 general election for better performance in the upcoming exercise, even if he noted that other preparation efforts, like training, are proceeding as planned.
He added that, as of now, 126 domestic and foreign organizations have received accreditation from INEC, enabling them to send out 11,000 observers for the three-week-ahead elections.
“Although the portal for media accreditation closes on Tuesday, October 24, 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 agents 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.
Yakubu reiterated that the Commission is extremely concerned about the current condition of unrest and violence related to the upcoming elections in the three states.
“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.
