BENIN – Professor Mahmood Yakubu, Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has told the Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), that the commission has so far accredited 134 groups comprising 124 domestic and 10 international, while deploying 1,836 observers and 114 accredited media organisations with 721 journalists.
The INEC chairman made the disclosure during an interactive session with members of the Civil Society groups observing the election and the commission’ election management team at the Edo state headquarters of the commission in Benin said the commission has also accredited thousands of agents representing candidates and political parties at the 4,730 polling and collation locations.
According to him, “There are 4,519 polling units, 192 ward collation centres, 18 local government collation centres and the state collation centre.
“We are deploying the BVAS machines for voter accreditation and for upload of results to the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal,” he said
He also pointed out that the electoral materials are rapped in water proof polythene materials to protect them from being destroyed by water, adding that all sensitive materials will be dispatched from Benin City to the various Local Government Areas starting with the farthest.
While assuring the election observers of a hitch free Edo governorship election on 21st September, the INEC chairman pointed out that the commission has deployed over 19,000 vehicles and river crafts to transport election materials to designated centres, adding that over 20,000 adhoc staff will be mobilised to conduct the election.
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Yakubu however commended the CSOs for their continuous engagement with the commission which he said, has led to the improvement in the country’s electoral process,
The Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) observing the election while addressing the Chairman, tasked INEC on timely delivery of election materials to polling units to forestall delays in commencement of polling.
Mr. Paul James, Programme Manager, Elections, YIAGA Africa,
in his observation told the chairman that there is the need for early arrival of voting materials to the polling centers for the early commencement of voting.
According to him, “INEC should review its internal processes in terms of logistics to get election materials to polling units on time”.
The CSOs also suggested the repetition of elections in all the polling units where election results were cancelled as a result of violence so as to discourage the perpetuation of violence at polling units during elections.
