The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has stated that it will deploy 46,084 regular and ad hoc staff for the off-cycle governorship election coming up in November in Imo, Bayelsa, and Kogi states.
This was made known by the Chairman of the Commission, Mahmood Yakubu, in his remarks at a meeting with Resident Electoral Commissioners held at the INEC Conference Room, Abuja, on Friday.
According to Mahmood, the three elections will involve 5,409,438 registered voters who will vote in 10,510 polling units spread across 649 electoral wards in 56 local government areas.
He further stated that so far, all non-sensitive materials for the election have been delivered to the three states.
While noting that other preparation activities, such as training, are underway, Yakubu stated that significant lessons from the 2023 general election have been learned for enhanced performance in the upcoming elections.
He also stated that INEC has already accredited 126 national and foreign groups, with a total of 11,000 observers set to be deployed for the three-week poll.
“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 finalising arrangements for vehicles and boats for land and maritime movement of personnel and materials,” the INEC Chair said.
The INEC boss restated that the Commission is concerned about the prevailing insecurity and election-related violence in the three states where 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 added.
