Politics
THE Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Thursday said parties and their candidates in the Ondo Governorship election would on Nov. 8 sign a Peace Accord.
INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, said this at the fourth regular quarterly consultative meeting with Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in Abuja.
Yakubu said that that the signing of the peace accord would be handled by the National Peace Committee under the leadership of former Head of State, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar.
He also disclosed that a total of 64,273 Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs) from the newly registered voters were collected during PVCs collection exercise that ended two days ago in the state.
According to Yakubu, the figure represented 71.6 per cent of the 89,777 new cards delivered to the state.
He said that in the next few days, INEC would upload to its website the cumulative figure of all PVCs collected in each of the 3,933 Polling Units across the state for result management and for public information.
Speaking on the commission’s preparation for the Ondo governorship election, Yakubu who said that INEC had learnt lessons from previous elections, promised improvement in the election.
He said that the commission had improved on the voter accreditation process and the upload of results to the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal.
“There have been similar improvements in observer and media accreditation. Our voter education efforts are ongoing.
“The capacity of election duty staff has improved with hands-on training for especially Polling Unit officials.
“As we approach the Ondo State governorship election, there will be further improvements, especially in the areas of logistics for the movement of personnel and materials to both land and riverine locations.
“This is to enable the prompt commencement of polls as well as the management of the processes on Election Day from voting to declaration of result,’’ he said.
He said that already mock accreditation of voters and result upload to the IReV had been scheduled for Wednesday Nov. 6 in 12 Polling Units across six Local Government Areas in the three Senatorial Districts of the State.
Yakubu said that by next week, INEC would undertake a final readiness assessment of its preparations for the Ondo election.
He said that the commission would meet with its officials, engage with stakeholders and interact with the security agencies and transport providers.
“As the Ondo State Governorship approaches, I wish to remind CSOs that are yet to submit reports for the Edo Governorship election to do so in earnest.
“I also urge you to intensify your advocacy for peaceful elections, especially now that campaign by political parties and candidates is in full swing in the State.
“Happily, there has been no major incident of election-related violence known to the Commission in Ondo so far.
“However, we are aware of flash points in some Local Government Area to which we have already drawn the attention of the security agencies,’’ he said.
Yakubu also reminded the accredited observers for the state election the need to complying with the Commission’s rules of engagement for accredited election observers.
He noted that INEC reserved the right to withdraw the accreditation of any individual observer or group that violates Code of Conduct for election observation.
Speaking on behalf of the CSOs, the Executive Director OJA Development Consult, Jide Ojo, commended INEC on the peaceful conduct of the Edo elections.
Ojo urged the commission to address the challenges associated with result uploads on INEC portal.(NAN)
A.I
Nov. 1, 2024
Tags: Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar. INEC Jide Ojo Prof. Mahmood Yakubu
