By Oluwatosin Maliki
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has announced that approximately 5.4 million voters have been registered in Kogi, Bayelsa, and Imo State ahead of the November 11th, governorship elections.
This was disclosed in a statement on Tuesday by Sam Olumekun, INEC’s National Commissioner of Chairman of the organization’s Information and Voter Education Committee.
He said, “The Commission held its regular meeting today, Tuesday 10th October 2023 and, among other issues, reviewed preparations for the off-cycle Governorship elections in Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi States”.
Sam added, “For the forthcoming elections, there are 1,056,862 registered voters in Bayelsa State; 2,419,922 in Imo State; and 1,932,654 in Kogi State, making a combined total of 5,409,438 registered voters for the three states”.
He expressed that all political parties contesting in the elections will receive soft copies of the entire voter register for each state.
The National Commissioner added that, “In Bayelsa State, 16 political parties are sponsoring candidates; in Imo State, 17; and in Kogi State, all 18 parties are sponsoring candidates”.
“State Chairmen of political parties or their designated representatives are invited to attend the event, which will take place at the Collation Centers in the State Headquarters of the Commission in Lokoja, Owerri, and Yenagoa on Thursday 12th October 2023 at 10.00 am”.
Furthermore, Sam explained that, as part of the commission’s efforts in furthering the use of technology for voter accreditation and result management, planning for mock voter accreditation in the three states has been successfully completed, so as to test the functionality of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and the upload of polling unit results to the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV).
Also, Sam noted that the exercise will be conducted concurrently in the three states on Saturday from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., further expressing that all the list of designated polling units for each state has been uploaded to its website and social media platforms.
The commission also urged registered voters to actively participate in the election by showing up at the polls with their Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs).