By Elizabeth Vincent
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Chairman Professor Mahmood Yakubu, has said 1,056,862 voters have registered in Bayelsa State while 1,017,613 of them have collected their permanent voter cards (PVCs) and 39,249 PVCs are uncollected.
The commission said it would deploy the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) in all the 2,244 polling units in Bayelsa State for the election. “We have trained technical support staff that will be deployed to all the registration areas (RAs) and local government areas (LGAs) to provide technical support for the BVAS,” he assured.
Yakubu said INEC is committed to free, fair, credible and violence-free election on Saturday.
Yakubu who spoke at the election stakeholders’ meeting on Bayelsa State governorship election yesterday at the Lady Diama Memorial Event Centre, implored traditional rulers, market women, youths, leaders and members of political parties, including the candidates and all other stakeholders to allow peace to reign before, during and after the election.
Represented by the national commissioner supervising Bayelsa, Mrs May Agbamuche-Mbu, Prof Yakubu said the meeting was to update stakeholders on the activities of the commission and to provide a forum to generate discussions with a view to achieving transparent, peaceful and violence free election.
“Extensive hands-on-practicals on the use of Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and Uploading of the Result to IREV (INEC Result Viewing Portal) by the appropriate personnel have also been made.
“On Election Day, the National Headquarters of INEC in Abuja will monitor the election throughout the state.
Our Zoom Situation Room will be accordingly activated.
Members of the Inter Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES) will also activate their situation room on Bayelsa State to monitor the security situation across the state.
“The commission has been working assiduously and making arrangements for the successful conduct of the governorship election this weekend and have had several engagements with the security agencies at national, state and local government levels. We have recruited, trained and carefully screened all ad-hoc staff to be deployed to the field.
“All non-sensitive materials for the election have been delivered to all our 8 local government area offices across the state. Voter education and sensitisation is ongoing. We have made arrangements for the transportation of personnel and materials to ensure that polling units open on schedule on election day.
“For a more effective supervision of the process, we are deploying one national commissioner, 8 resident electoral commissioners and many senior officials to support our state office here in Bayelsa to deliver credible elections.
“Two international and 53 domestic media organisations are deploying 282 journalists. Also 2,000 domestic observers, and eight foreign observers are expected,” he said.
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