New Telegraph

Anambra poll: Over 2.5m voters to elect next gov –INEC

…disqualifies 62,698 for double registration

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said a total of 2,525,471 persons will vote in the November 6 Anambra governorship election. INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, who disclosed this at an emergency meeting with leaders of political parties in Abuja on Friday, said 77,475 new registrants, who completed their registration process were added to 2,447,996 eligible voters used for the 2019 general elections. Yakubu, however, stated that 62,698 persons were discovered to have registered twice during the process of cleaning up the registration data.

“These double or multiple registrations are invalid by law. We have archived these registrations and will not print new PVCs (permanent voters’ cards) for them. “Their old PVCs remain valid and they can use them to vote at the polling units where they registered and probably voted in previously elections. Let me remind all Nigerians that the law prohibits double registration,” he said.

The INEC Chairman told the party leaders that the commission has almost completed the recruitment of ad hoc staff for the election. “In all, about 26,000 election duty staff are required. Although there are still some minor shortfalls, we believe that we will complete the recruitment in time for their training scheduled to commence on 19th October 2021.

“The training of other categories of staff, such as Electoral Officers (EOs) and Assistant Electoral Officers (AEOs) has been completed, while the training of Supervisory Presiding Officers (SPOs) will commence soon,” he said. Yakubu assured that INEC would deploy the BVAS for electronic fingerprint and facial accreditation of voters, disclosing that the pilot deployment of the system in the Isoko South 1 state constituency bye-election in Delta State held last month was very encouraging. He stated that nobody will be allowed to vote in any election without successful biometric accreditation, as he further disclosed that the commission has recovered fully from the attack on its facilities at its state office in Awka, and is working assiduously with security agencies to ensure that such an attack does not happen again.

He, however, regretted security remains a major challenge to the commission’s preparations for the election. “For the political parties, these heinous attacks have truncated campaigns, making voter mobilisation and sensitisation impossible. Consequently, Anambra State is not in the usual election mood.

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