By Ihechi Enyinnaya
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will on Tuesday 10th September 2024 conduct a Mock Accreditation of voters to test-run the deployment of BVAS for the Edo Guber election as well as the upload of results to the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal.
Chairman of INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu revealed this during an extraordinary meeting with political leaders on the Edo governorship election.
He said 12 polling units in six LGAs across the three Senatorial Districts of the State have been designated as centres for the one-day exercise which begins at 8.30am and ends at 2.30pm.
He said: “Detailed information on the locations of the Polling Units for the exercise have been uploaded to our website. Hard copies are also included in your folders for this meeting.
“It is exactly 22 days (3 weeks and 1 day) to the Edo State Governorship election. Campaigns are in full swing and we have already implemented 10 out of the 13 activities listed in our Timetable and Schedule of Activities for the election. The most recent activity was the presentation to political parties of the final register of voters containing details of the 2,629,025 registered voters for the election. This was done on Tuesday 20th August 2024 in our State office in Benin City. We are now left with three outstanding activities, namely the publication of Notice of Poll scheduled for Saturday 7th September 2024, the Last Day of Campaign by political parties which is Thursday 19th September 2024 and, finally, the Election Day which is Saturday 21st September 2024.
“In addition to these statutory activities, we have intensified our engagement with stakeholders at State and Local Government levels. Similarly, voter education is ongoing. We have concluded the training of security personnel and we are finalising the delivery of the few remaining non-sensitive materials for the election. We are concluding arrangements with the land and maritime transport unions for logistics. The printing of triplicate copies of voters’ register for each of the 4,519 Polling Units in Edo State is virtually completed. The installation and configuration of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines to be deployed on Election Day is completed. Observer accreditation tags are being produced. The portal for media accreditation closes next week and so far, 88 media organisations have applied by uploading the details of 698 personnel (journalists, technicians and crew members) to cover the election. We will soon commence the training of various categories of adhoc staff.
“After consultation with the National Peace Committee (NPC) under the leadership of our respected former Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar GCFR, the signing of the Peace Accord for the Edo State Governorship election will take place on Thursday 12th September 2024 in Benin City. Supported by eminent members of the Peace Committee, the occasion will be presided over by the Chairman, General Abdulsalami Abubakar. You may notice that unlike the previous peace accords signed a few days to the election, it was decided to do so early this time around to enable the Peace Committee to monitor compliance with the code voluntarily signed by parties, candidates and other critical players in the electoral process such as INEC and the security agencies during the remaining days to the election. This will add further weight to the Peace Accord beyond mere ceremony as demanded by many observers and even some of the political actors themselves.
“The signing of the Peace Accord will be preceded by the INEC Stakeholders meeting to be held on Wednesday 11th September 2024 in Benin City. As usual, the meeting will be addressed by the INEC Chairman and the Inspector-General of Police. It is an open forum for political parties, candidates, observers and the media to interact with the Commission and the security agencies ahead of the election.
“Let me now turn to a matter that requires your urgent attention, i.e. the nomination of polling and collation agents for the Edo State governorship election. Some you here may recall that in consultation with the political parties, we replaced the manual process for the submission of the list of agents with a digital platform. We have done the same for accreditation of observers and media organisations in consultation with the stakeholders. On our own, we have also replaced the manual process of recruiting ad hoc staff with a digital platform called the INECPRES. All these activities are now done electronically on a number of dedicated portals. This has simplified our processes and reduced costs for all stakeholders.”