2.37m voters, 25,813 workers for polls

 Bolaji Ogundele Abuja

 

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said 2.37 million voters will have access to voting during the November 16 governorship election in Bayelsa and Kogi states.

INEC Chairman Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, who disclosed this while briefing the Senator Kabiru Gaya-led Senate Committee on INEC on the commission’s preparations for the Bayelsa and Kogi governorship elections, in Abuja, said 25,813 ad-hoc officials would be engaged for the task in both states.

Yakubu, accompanied by national commissioners of the commission, said that voting would take place at 2,244 polling units across Bayelsa’s 105 electoral wards in its eight council areas, just as it will be taking place in 3,508 polling units across Kogi’s 239 wards in its 21 councils.

Giving a breakdown of the number of eligible voters in both states, the INEC chairman said that although 2,569,432 persons got registered in both states (923,182 for Bayelsa and 1,646,250 for Kogi) and since only those with Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) will be allowed to vote, the number of those who would be eligible on election day would be just 2,375,136, as that is the figure of the PVCs already collected.

“In terms of the number of local governments, Bayelsa has eight local government areas. Kogi has 21. Bayelsa has 105 electoral wards, Kogi has 239. For the polling units including the voting points, Bayelsa has 2,244 polling units and voting points, while Kogi has 3508.

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“In terms of the registered voters, Bayelsa has 923,182 registered voters, whereas Kogi has 1,646,350 registered voters. Since 2015, it has been the practice that where citizens have no PVCs (permanent Voter Cards) they can’t vote.

“In Bayelsa, 889,308 PVCs have been collected, representing 96.3 per cent of the total number of registered voters. In Kogi, 1, 485,828 PVCs have been collected, representing 90.2 per cent. What about the uncollected PVCs? In Bayelsa it is 33, 874, representing 3.7 per cent of the total number of registered voters. Whereas in Kogi it is 160, 522, representing 9.8 per cent of the total number of registered voters.

“We’ll require lot of ad-hoc workers to conduct the elections in the two states. In Bayelsa, we’ll require 9,945 ad-hoc officials. In Kogi, we’ll require 15,868 ad-hoc workers. In all, for the two states, the commission will require about 26,000 ad-hoc workers to conduct the elections.”

But in addition to the governorship election, we also have other elections, essentially by-elections.

“But in addition to the governorship election in Bayelsa State, there is also the pending supplementary election into the Brass II State Constituency in six polling units. We planned and prepared to conduct the election shortly after the general election, but for the protracted legal battle that went up to the Supreme Court.

“It is only recently that the Supreme Court determined the case. So, we are going back to conduct that election in six polling units and make a declaration for the Brass II State Constituency. We are going to combine it with the governorship election,” the INEC boss said.