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From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has admitted that it is experiencing shortfall of over 6,154 ad-hoc staff in Imo state for the November 11 governorship election.
INEC’s chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, made the disclosure on Monday at an ongoing two-day workshop on Bayelsa, Imo, Kogi state governorship elections for members of INEC Press Corps in Akwanga, Nasarawa state.
Yakubu however announced that the commission will source the shortfall from neighbouring states, announcing that successful applicants shows that Bayelsa and Kogi have full complement of their requirement for all categories of the ad-hoc staff.
Represented by National Commissioner and Chairman Information and Voter Education Committee, Sam Olumekun, the electoral umpire boss however raised fresh security alarms ahead of the elections in the three states.
Although he assured insisted that both the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV) used to upload the election results real-time will compulsorily used for the elections, the commission will adopt manual collation of election results.
On the shortfalls in the ad-hoc staff, Yakubu, in his keynote address said: “The summary of successful applicants shows that Bayelsa and Kogi have full complement of their requirement for all categories of ad-hoc staff, while Imo has a shortfall of 6,154. The shortfall will be sourced from the neighbouring state.”
Lamenting the spate of escalating insecurity in the states, Yakubu said: “We urge political parties participating in the off-cycle governorship elections to critically study and pay attention to the provisions of the Constitution, the Electoral Act, the Police Act, and the Public Order Act for the proper and peaceful conduct of political campaigns, rallies, and processions.
“A political campaign or slogan shall not be tainted with abusive language directly or indirectly likely to injure religious, ethnic, tribal, or sectional feelings.
Abusive, intemperate, slanderous, or base language or innuendoes designed or likely to provoke violent reactions or emotions shall not be employed or used in political campaigns. Let me also note that insecurity is still a concern in the states. We appeal to the stakeholders not to overheat the polity,” he appealed.
On the deployment of technology for the polls, he reiterated that; “for the three governorship elections scheduled for 11th November, the commission will deploy the BVAS to authenticate the Permanent Voter’s Card (PVC) and upload polling unit results to the IREV seamlessly on election day.”
However, both the Director of ICT and other resource persons warned that; “it is important to note that this is not a results collation system, as results collation is still a manual process.”
