By Balarabe Oshiafi
On Tuesday at the headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) civil society organisations (CSOs) were urged to strictly adhere to code of ethics and the law to made the coming Edo and Ondo governorship elections successful.
It was the third regular quarterly consultative meeting with stakeholders and the turn of CSOs
The Chairman of INEC Mahmood Yakubu while welcoming guests gave a briefing to the effect that the umpire is effectively managing issues that are arising and preparing for the two guber polls in earnest.
“You may also recall that the last meeting focused mainly on the forthcoming Edo State and Ondo State Governorship elections. Today, we will furthermore brief you on the bye-elections that occurred since our last meeting”, he said.
He informed the CSOs that the Edo INEC office that was damaged by food has been repaired, “It is now 52 days to the Edo State Governorship election coming up on Saturday 21st September 2024. Our preparations are going on in earnest. I am glad to report that we have recovered from the torrential rainfall that resulted in the severe flooding of our State Headquarters in Benin City two months ago. The damage to the physical infrastructure as well as movable and immovable facilities are being fixed or replaced. We have delivered additional Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines to Edo State for the training of election duty personnel as well as contingency for Election Day support. We have once again published the final list of candidates in compliance with the recent Court Order mandating the Commission to replace the running mate to the candidate of the Labour Party. The amended list is already published on our website”, he told the visitors.
"Following the conclusion of the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR), the display of the register for claims and objections by citizens, and further data clean-up using the Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS), the final register for the forthcoming Governorship elections is being finalised. “Before the end of this week, the Commission will publish the final figures of new voters in the two States as well as their distribution by gender, age, occupation and disability. Thereafter, the timetable for the collection of uncollected Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs) from previous registration, and new registrants from the latest CVR, will be published. Based on the information provided by the Commission, we look forward to your partnership in encouraging citizens to collect their PVCs.
“As the Edo State Governorship approaches, I wish to remind CSOs to submit the list of your observers by uploading the required information, including photographs, to the dedicated portal.
“As at yesterday, Monday 29th July 2024, 56 organisations have uploaded the details of 894 observers for the Edo State Governorship election representing 33.6% of the expected 2,660 observers. The deadline is Wednesday 31stJuly 2024 when the portal automatically shuts down at 6pm. I urge you to ensure that you meet the deadline so that the Commission can produce the accreditation tags and deliver them to you for distribution to your observers in good time.”
