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Judex Okoro, Calabar
Ahead of this Saturday’s rescheduled local government elections in Cross River, about 8000 personnel have been deployed across the state to ensure the smooth conduct of the elections.
The Chairman of the Cross River State Independent Electoral Commission, Dr. Mike Ushie, who disclosed this in Calabar while speaking on preparations by the commission, said they are ready for the elections and one hundred percent compliant with post COVID-19 elections guidelines recently released by the Independent National Electoral Commission as well as the National Centre for Diseases Control.
He said: “Eight thousand personnel have been mobilised to cover the two thousand, two hundred and twenty-six polling units in the state. There will be three personnel per pooling unit, five at the accreditation centres, five at the local government and ward coalition centres.
“Accreditation and voting will take place simultaneously and in line with INEC guidelines, there will be two levels of queuing and voters will vote in batches while maintaining social distance.
“We had to make sure that we are on course and lives are protected. Luckily INEC released the procedure for post COVID-19 elections and I must say that we are in full compliance with it. INEC said we have to provide hand sanitizers, face masks and we have adopted all the procedures one hundred percent.
“ We have gone beyond INEC and have gone ahead to procure hand sanitizers, hand washing containers, a good number of face masks and we are working seriously to ensure that the right thing is done”, he said.
He added that the commission has given sufficient notice for the elections and confirmed that five political parties will be participating in Saturday’s elections.
