By Musa Baba Adamu
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has published detailed information on 40 polling units where elections will not hold on Saturday.
INEC National Commissioner and Chairman Information and Voter Education Committee, Sam Olumekun, in a statement issued yesterday explained that two polling units in Bayelsa and 38 in Imo were without registered voters.
The national commissioner added that 16 political parties are sponsoring candidates for the election in Bayelsa State, while 18 parties are sponsoring candidates in both Imo and Kogi states.
Olumekun noted that elections would be held in 10,470 polling units (excluding the 40 polling units without registered voters).
He explained that each political party is expected to nominate polling agents for all the polling units as well as 649 Ward, 56 LGA and three State collation centres.
He said: “In continuation of the Commission’s preparations for the three off-cycle Governorship elections in Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi States, the Commission is making available two publications on the forthcoming polls as follows:
“This publication contains an infographic summary of registered voters and Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs) collected by Local Government Areas (LGAs) as well as the distribution of registered voters by gender, age group, occupation and disability.
“The publication also includes the list of candidates and detailed information on the two polling units in Bayelsa and 38 in Imo State without registered voters.
“The Commission has repeatedly said that elections will not hold in these polling units. No materials have been produced for these locations and no officials will be deployed to them.”
Olumekun noted that at the close of the deadline for uploading the list of agents to the INEC dedicated portal by political parties, 34,704 agents were uploaded for Bayelsa State, 65,274 for Imo State and 37,995 for Kogi State, making a total of 137,973 polling and collation agents for the three states.
He said the detailed breakdown shows that not all the parties nominated agents for the polling and collation centres across the states.
The national commissioner said some political parties have no polling unit or collation agents in some states despite having candidates in the election.
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