From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
Ahead of July 30 deadline for uploading names of polling agents for the Edo State governorship election, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has revealed that while three political parties are yet to comply with a single name, five parties have not uploaded a single agent for ward, local government and state collation centres.
Chairman of the commission, Mahmood Yakubu, made the revelation in his remarks at the third regular quarterly consultative meeting with political parties in Abuja yesterday.
He expressed surprise that 24 hours after the automatic shutting down of the portal, the three political parties were yet to upload the details, urging them to meet the deadline to enable the commission produce the accreditation tags and deliver to them for distribution to their agents in time.
“As the Edo State governorship approaches, I wish to remind leaders of political parties of their obligation to submit the list of their agents by uploading the required information, including photographs to the dedicated portal.
“This requirement is listed as item nine on the timetable and schedule of activities for the election released by the commission nearly a year ago on September 26, 2023.
“As at Sunday, July 28, 2024, 14 political parties have uploaded the details of 38,354 polling agents and 819 collation agents for the Edo State governorship election. Three parties are yet to upload a single polling agent, while five parties have not uploaded a single agent for ward, local government and state collation centres.
“The deadline is Tuesday, July 30, 2024, when the portal automatically shuts down at midnight. I urge you to ensure that you meet the deadline so that the commission can produce the accreditation tags and deliver them to you for distribution to your agents in good time,” he said.
While giving an update on the poll, Yakubu expressed readiness for the election, explaining: “It is now 53 days to the Edo State governorship election coming up on Saturday, September 21, 2024. Our preparations are going on in earnest. I am glad to report that we have recovered from the torrential rainfall that resulted in the severe flooding of our state headquarters in Benin City two months ago.
“The damage to the physical infrastructure has been fixed. Vehicles have been repaired, while other movable and immovable facilities have been serviced, refurbished or are being gradually replaced. We have delivered additional Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines to Edo State for the training of election duty personnel as well as contingency for Election Day support.
“We have since published the final list of candidates but we are once again sharing the list with party leaders at this meeting in view of the recent court order mandating the Commission to replace the running mate of the candidate of the Labour Party. The amended list is already published on our website,” he noted.