New Telegraph

498,390 to vote in Aba North/ South by-election, says INEC

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said that a total of 498,390 registered voters are expected to cast their ballots in the Saturday’s by-election for Aba North/South federal constituency of Abia State. The election, which will be held in 609 polling units across the24registrationareas(RAs) in thetwolocalgovernmentareas, will be conducted by over 2,970 INEC officials. A statement by National Commissioner in charge of Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, disclosed that all the non-sensitive materials required for the conduct of the election had already been delivered and batched according to the registration areas.

“All the ad-hoc staff required for the conduct of the election had been trained and awaiting deployment. Also, all the sensitive materials have been delivered to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in Umuahia, the state capital, and will be inspected today, Thursday, March 25, 2021 before dispatching them to the Commission’s offices in the two Local Government Areas,” the statement added.

Okoye, therefore, called on all the registered voters in the federal constituency to come out en masse to exercise their franchise, noting that “representation is at the heart of democracy and huge voter turnout enforces and reinforces the mandate given to elected representatives.”

He also enjoined the voters and stakeholders to remain calm, but to shun violence and other acts capable of creating fear, anxiety and apprehension in the electoral environment. “Violent and unwholesome acts undermine the sovereign rights of the people to clean elections and deprive the constituency of quality representation,” he added, even as the Commissioner assured the people that INEC was committed to the safety and welfare of its election duty staff and the voters, and therefore would strengthen collaborationwiththeInter- Agency Consultative Committee on ElectionSecurityinthisregard.” Meanwhile, INEC had last weekend, postponed indefinitely, the Ekiti 1 state constituency election in Ekiti State due to violence that erupted and claimed the lives of about four persons, while a youth corps member sustained gunshot wounds.

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