Imo: INEC to conduct election in all PUs despite insecurity

The Independent National Electoral Commission on Wednesday revealed that it would conduct elections in all polling units in the state on November 11 governorship election in the state despite rising insecurity.

At a press conference in Owerri, the state capital, the INEC’s Resident Electoral Commissioner in the state, Sylvia Agu, said that the commission would conduct elections even in troubled Local Government Areas like Orsu, Orlu, Okigwe, and Oguta.

She said that the security agents had assured the commission of adequate security before, during, and after the election.

The REC disclosed that 2,318,919 people had collated their Permanent Voter’s Cards while 101,003 people had yet to collate their PVCs ahead of the election.

She said, “The number of collated PVCs is 2, 318919. while uncollated PVCs stand at 101,003. The polling units where elections won’t take place are 38. These are places with zero registration numbers. The election will be held in 4,720 polling units.

The total number of polling units is 4,758.

“Our Workforce for the election revolves around 21,000 staff. We are ready for this election. It is an off-cycle election, the very first one in the history of Imo state, and we are very prepared for it. The election will start at 8: 30 am and stop at 2:30 pm. We will collate results electronically.

She said that out of the 13 programs liked up by the Commission for the election, INEC had perfectly executed 11, remaining just two items on its list, which she said are the last day for campaigns by political parties and their candidates, which is November 9 and the election proper slated for November 11.

Agu continued, “It is germane to state at this juncture that the Commission has conducted all the pre-electoral activities prior to the November 11 elections within the timeline stipulated by the Electoral Act and election guidelines in a professional, credible, and transparent manner.

“Furthermore, the Independent National Electoral Commission in the State has held several stakeholders’ meetings at various levels to dialogue with the stakeholders and collaborate with them towards achieving a successful election.

“Through these meetings, we have sought to strategically engage the security agencies under the auspices of the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES), political parties and their agents, traditional rulers and their executive cabinets, religious leaders and faith-based groups, youths and women groups, organisations of persons with disabilities (OPWDs), civil society organisations and non-governmental organizations, media executives and journalists, different voter education providers and all who have made monumental contributions in organising and conducting free, fair, credible, inclusive and safe elections in the State.

“The benefit of these partnerships in promoting voter education, voters’ participation, transparency, inclusivity, peace and security throughout the process cannot be overemphasized as the success of an electoral process is a collective effort of all partners and also not a day’s event.

“The Commission has conducted the training of staff and a readiness assessment required for the Amber Zone timeline. During the readiness assessment and training, which took place in Rockview Hotel Owerri, between Friday 13th to Saturday 14th October 2023, the INEC Election Monitoring and Support Centre (EMSC) hosted the twenty-seven electoral officers and their assistants (Operations), the Heads of departments and State EMSC desk officers.

“The assessment, which covered every facet of election preparedness from election security, voter education and publicity, election officials, to the availability of non-sensitive election materials in their right quantities, was an objective platform to examine and predict the interactions and outcomes of internal and external factors that might interfere with the peaceful and successful conduct of the elections.

“Also, during the Amber Zone baseline workshop, the election risk reports and identified unique challenges of the various Local Government Areas were collated for proper attention.

“Similarly, the Red Zone mid-line assessment meeting was held on October 30, 2023, to prepare the key election officials for the November 11 governorship election for the Red Zone, which commences on Thursday, November 2, 2023 and will last until two days after the elections.

“The key objectives of the Election Monitoring and Support Centre (EMSC) in organising the Red Zone meeting are: to assist with the coordination to review activities in collaboration with the State EMSC Secretariat team; ensure all updates including validation by Heads of Departments and challenges as may be reported by the Electoral Officers are captured on the EMSC Amber Zone assessment template and; and to familiarize participants with the Red Zone assessment forms/updates.

“These meetings have shown significant positive ratings of the preparedness and compliance of the key election officials in the State, thereby validating the position of the Commission on her readiness for a successful outing.

The Independent National Electoral Commission has recognised the strategic roles of proper transport logistics during elections and has commenced engagements with the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) and the Nigerian Association of Transport Owners (NATO) through their State executives to secure effective and efficient transportation of men and material for the elections. This timely collaboration with the transport unions promises to forestall all possible shortfalls or disagreements with the transporters before the critical hours.

“Meanwhile, the training of election officials, which is a strategic undertaking prior to any successful exercise, has commenced across the State. While the training of the Supervisory Presiding Officers (SPOs) was held between October 23 and 24 at the Government Secondary School Owerri, the training of Presiding Officers (POs) and Assistant Presiding Officers (APOs) held between October 27 and 29, 2023, at the various LGAs in the State except for Orsu LGA which training of poll officials took place in Owerri for security reasons. The training of poll officials recorded an impressive turnout, which will offset the application deficiency from the INEC press portal during the online application.

“The training of the remaining categories of election officials will be done in due time taking into consideration the peculiarities of their tasks.”