As the June 18 gubernatorial election approaches in Ekiti State, the Resident Electoral Commissioner, (REC) for INEC in the state, Dr Tella Adeniran, has confirmed that 16 political parties would be participating.
Playing host to members of the Online Media Practitioners of Nigeria (OMPAN) on a courtesy visit in Ado-Ekiti on Saturday, the REC said that the election would take place across the 16 local government areas and 177 wards.
“We are ready for the June 18 gubernatorial election in the state holding across the 16 local government areas and 177 wards in the state,” he assured.
He stated that as part of the preparations for the election, the commission has embarked on sensitisation and enlightenment campaign, which has always been on continuous basis.
“We have met with the Civil Society Organisations and their response have always been encouraging, so, we normally keep them abreast of the events in the commission.
“We have also held series of meetings and advocacy visits to traditional rulers and other towns and villages, while we still have it in plan to regularly meet with other stakeholders to ensure the success of the polls.
“We therefore expect that you will also be ready to partner with the commission for the success before, during and after the poll.”
He said that the commission has embarked on the expansion of voters access to polling units in recent times, saying that for almost 25 years now, precisely between 1996 and 2021, the numbers of polling units in Nigeria remains the same despite the growth in the numbers of voting population over the years.
According to him, this led to the creation of voting points and other settlements across the states of the federation, including the FCT.
The REC said that the voting points and voting point settlements were later upgraded to full polling units across the country and these brings the total polling units in Ekiti to 2,445, with additional 250 polling units in the former existing ones.
Adeniran said that apart from the expansion of voters access to polling units, the commission has also plans to engage in the devolution of CVR to RAS by moving the Continous Voters Registeration to resident areas which is going to commence on March 8, and end on March 14.
He said to drive these points home, the relevant stakeholders’ meeting always come up and they always address issues concerning the commission officially.
He said that the commission had introduced new innovations to include, submission and processing of nomination forms and other applications.
“The activities are now conducted either partially or entirely online.”
He said that voters’ pre-registration, nomination of candidates for election by political parties, accreditation of National and International observers for elections, registration of media organisations and submission of lists of polling and polling agents by political parties.
He said that part of the activities of the commission is the CVR which Is still ongoing throughout the state for those who have just turned 18 years and above, but could not register in the past for one reason or the other, and those who want to update the information on their PVC.
Also, it is meant for those that want to engage in inter and intra state transfer, those who have defaced PVCs and all sort of manner of change, who will use the opportunity to bring back their PVCs to acceptable standard.
Earlier, the state OMPAN Chairman and Chairman, Federated Chapel of the Union of Journalists, Ekiti State Council, Mr Ayodele Abere, assured the commission of the association’s support.
He said that the body has always been very supportive in previous elections, assuring that the governorship election would not be any different by ensuring that information released to the public is authentic and verifiable.
He added that the body would work more closely with INEC to ensure that the June 18 governorship election is free, fair and violence-free.
Packaged by Emmanuel Adeniran with additional reports from nannews.ng
