INEC to conduct 9 bye – elections ahead Edo, Ondo guber polls – Yakubu

…Says Edo, Ondo guber polls to hold as planned

Tunde Opalana, Abuja

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared that it will conduct elections five Senatorial and four State Assembly bye-elections ahead of Edo Ondo states governorship elections.

This is to enable the Commission test run and fine-tune its modified processes in view of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The chairman of the Commission, Prof.Mahmood Yakubu made this known in his opening remark at the first virtual meeting with Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) on Saturday.

He said the Commission has already has directed the RECs for the nine states where the bye-elections will hold to begin preparations in earnest.

Yakubu disclosed that INEC is also studying reports of recent elections conducted under the COVID-19 pandemic, especially in places such as Mali and South Korea, for any lessons that will strengthen our processes and protect all those involved.

In addition to the two governorship elections in Edo and Ondo states, the chairman said preparations are in top gear to conduct nine legislative bye-elections.

This follows declaration of vacancies in five Senatorial Districts (Bayelsa Central, Bayelsa East, Imo North, Plateau South and Cross River North) and four states House of Assembly (Nasarawa Central State Constituency, Nganzai and Bayo State constituencies of Borno State and Bakori State constituency of Katsina State).

Yakubu said “the Edo and Ondo governorship elections as well as the five Senatorial and four State Assembly bye-elections are spread across nine states of the federation involving a cumulative number of 62 Local Government Areas (LGAs); 687 Registration Areas (RAs); 9,149 Polling Units (PUs) and 6,454,950 registered voters.

“Put in the context of our sub-region, the number of registered voters for these off-season elections is equivalent to holding general elections in Liberia, Guinea Bissau, Sierra Leone and Cape Verde put together. Full delimitation details for the elections have been uploaded on our website and social media platforms”.

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Issues discussed at the meeting include; input of RECs to the new policy with particular reference to its implementation in the areas of recruitment and training of ad hoc staff, logistics for the deployment of personnel and materials, the conduct of party primaries and nomination of candidates, the submission of the names of polling agents by political parties, the accreditation of observers and the media, the security of the electoral process, polling unit management and the collation and declaration of results.

According to the chairman, the first virtual meeting was held against the background of the global health challenge posed by the COVID-19 pandemic in which no country around the world is unaffected.

However, he assured that both the governorship elections in Edo and Ondo states scheduled for 19th September 2020 and 10th October 2020 respectively will proceed as planned.

“Already, some of the registered political parties have notified the Commission of the dates for their party primaries leading to the nomination of their candidates for the two elections.

“While the Commission takes the COVID-19 pandemic seriously, our democracy and electoral process cannot be truncated for this reason, particularly because health authorities have advised on measures to protect the public from the virus, including all those involved in elections”, Yakubu said.