From Ebohon Joan
The Edo State Independent Electoral Commission (EDSIEC) has approved 12 political parties to contest in Saturday’s local government election across the state.
Chairman of the commission, Hon. Jonathan Aifuobhokhan, made this known on Thursday during a media briefing in Benin City. He said the commission had completed all necessary preparations to ensure the election is conducted in a free, fair, credible and peaceful manner.
According to him, voting will take place across the state’s 18 local government areas, 192 wards and 4,519 polling units.
He listed some of the political parties participating in the election to include the All Progressives Congress (APC), Action Alliance (AA), Accord Party, Action People’s Party (APP), African Action Congress (AAC), Action Democratic Party (ADP), New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) and Zenith Labour Party (ZLP), among others.
Aifuobhokhan said all sensitive and non-sensitive election materials had been prepared, inspected, sorted and packaged for distribution to the commission’s offices in the various local government areas. He added that special arrangements had also been made to transport materials to riverine and hard to reach communities so that eligible voters would not be excluded from the exercise.
He also disclosed that transportation for election officials and materials had been fully arranged, with buses, utility vehicles, motorcycles and boats deployed where necessary.
The EDSIEC chairman said the commission recruited and trained over 9,000 ad hoc personnel, including supervisory presiding officers, presiding officers, returning officers and collation officers. He explained that the training focused on accreditation, voting procedures, vote counting, result collation, professional ethics and disability inclusion.
He urged eligible voters to come out peacefully and perform their civic responsibility, while advising them to avoid violence, vote buying, intimidation and the spread of false information.
He further stated that accreditation and voting will begin at 8:30 a.m. and end at 2:30 p.m., adding that anyone already on the queue before the closing time will still be allowed to vote. Counting and collation of results will commence immediately after voting.
Aifuobhokhan added that results will be announced at the designated collation centres after the exercise, while movement across Edo State will be restricted from 6:00 am to 6:30 pm on election day.
