Security Remains Our Major Challenge In Anambra Election-INEC Chairman
LAGOS OCTOBER 13TH (NEWSRANGERS)-Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) has affirmed that security remained its challenge in the coming Anambra State Governorship election.
INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu who made the statement in a remark at an emergency meeting of political parties and the Commission, held at Abuja recently said in a statement made available to NewsRangers that this heinous attacks have truncated political parties’ campaigns, making voter mobilization and sensitization impossible.
“Consequently, Anambra State is not in the usual election mood. It is in the light of the security situation in the State that the Commission held an emergency meeting of the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES) last Tuesday. The meeting was frank and productive. We are assured of the determination of the security agencies to protect voters, election staff, election observers, the media, transport providers and candidates during the election. Already, security around INEC facilities in the State has been ramped up. We are also confident that the heightened deployment of security officials, which is expected in the coming weeks, will further give citizens the confidence to turn up and vote on Election Day. We shall continue to work with the security agencies to ensure that the election is successful and violence-free,” he disclosed.
The Chairman, however, appealed to all political parties and candidates not to exacerbate the feeling of insecurity in Anambra State through unguarded utterances and actions, stressing that it could compound the security situation and make the work of the Commission, political parties and security agencies even more difficult.
He disclosed that the Commission had found out that some 62,698 persons who are already registered voters in Anambra State went ahead to register again, adding that these double or multiple registrations are invalid by law.
According to him, “We have archived these registrations and will not print new PVCs for them. Their old PVCs remain valid and they can use them to vote at the Polling Units where they registered and probably voted in previously elections. The same cleaning up exercise is going on nationwide. As soon as it is over, the Commission will provide further details to Nigerians on the situation in other States of the Federation and action to be taken on the matter.
“ Let me remind all Nigerians that the law prohibits double registration. The Commission appreciates the fact that the deployment of technology, including the online pre-registration, has simplified the process and made voter registration in Nigeria easier. However, the same technology has also made it easier for us to detect multiple registrations.
“Consequently, the number of valid registrants in Anambra State at the end of the First Quarter of the CVR exercise on 5th September 2021 is 77,475. This figure has been added to the existing register of 2,447,996 eligible voters used for the 2019 General Election. Accordingly, the number of registered voters in Anambra State now stands at 2,525,471. We shall provide a detailed breakdown of the figure for public information in the days ahead.
“I am glad to report that we have already completed 10 out of 14 activities in our Timetable and Schedule of Activities for the Governorship election. Only yesterday, we published the final list of candidates in our State and Local Government offices in Anambra State and simultaneously uploaded the same information to our website and social media platforms. Furthermore, all the 18 political parties participating in the election were issued a soft copy of the updated register of voters at a meeting held in our State Office in Awka. We are presently working on the printing of the PVCs. We shall use various channels, including e-mails and text messages, to contact the new voters to collect their PVCs before the election.
“We have almost completed the recruitment of ad hoc staff for the election. In all, about 26,000 election duty staff are required. Although there are still some minor shortfalls, we believe that we will complete the recruitment in time for their training scheduled to commence on 19th October 2021. The training of other categories of staff, such as Electoral Officers (EOs) and Assistant Electoral Officers (AEOs) has been completed, while the training of Supervisory Presiding Officers (SPOs) will commence soon.”
Turning to voter accreditation, he said, “I wish to assure you that the Commission is committed to deploying the BVAS for electronic fingerprint and facial accreditation of voters. The pilot deployment of the system in the Isoko South 1 State Constituency bye-election in Delta State held last month was very encouraging. For example, successful full biometric accreditation was 32.8% in the constituency during the 2019 General Election. However, using the BVAS in the same constituency during the recent bye-election, successful accreditation sharply rose to 97.4%. The Commission will continue to deploy appropriate technology to improve our electoral process. Let me once again reiterate the position of the Commission that going forward, nobody will be allowed to vote in any election without successful biometric accreditation.”
Short URL: https://newsrangers.com/?p=77656
Posted by News Rangers
on Oct 13 2021. Filed under National.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0.
You can leave a response or trackback to this entry
