2.5m voters to decide Soludo, Ozigbo, others fate, says INEC

Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Friday said a total of 2,525,471 registered voters will be participating in the November 6 Anambra governorship election.

INEC Chairman Professor Mahmood Yakubu, who disclosed this at an emergency meeting with political parties, said 77,475 valid registrants at the end of the First Quarter of the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise were added to the state’s voter’ register.

“This figure has been added to the existing register of 2,447,996 eligible voters used for the 2019 general Election.

Accordingly, the number of registered voters in Anambra State now stands at 2,525,471″, Yakubu stated.

The electoral umpire had on Thursday published the final list of candidates eligible to participate in poll.

The list named Former Central Bank Governor, Charles Soludo as candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA
and Valentine Ozigbo for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Andy Uba and Ifeanyi Ubah remained the respective governorship candidates of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Young Progressive Congress (YPP).

Speaking further, the INEC boss revealed that 62,698 persons who were registered voters went ahead to register afresh but were fished out by the commission, adding that “these double or multiple registrations are invalid by law”.

He added: “I am glad to report that we have already completed 10 out of 14 activities in our Timetable and Schedule of Activities for the Governorship election.

“Only yesterday, we published the final list of candidates in our State and Local Government offices in Anambra and simultaneously uploaded the same information to our website and social media platforms.

“Furthermore, all the 18 political parties participating in the election were issued a soft copy of the updated register of voters at a meeting held in our State Office in Awka.

“We are presently working on the printing of the PVCs. We shall use various channels, including e-mails and text messages, to contact the new voters to collect their Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs) before the election.”

On attacks on the Commission’s facilities, Yakubu, said: “I am glad to report that we have fully recovered from that attack. The buildings have been completely reconstructed and renovated in readiness for the election.

“All the non-sensitive materials have either been procured afresh or sourced from neighbouring States and our Zonal stores. We are working assiduously with security agencies to ensure that such an attack does not happen again.”

Yakubu admitted that the deteriorating security challenges in the state had truncated campaigns, and made voter mobilization and sensitization impossible, saying it has also caused the state not to be in the usual election mood.

According to Yakubu, security agencies had assured of their determination to protect voters, election staff, election observers, the media, transport providers and candidates during the election, noting that security around INEC facilities in the state has also been ramped up.

He added that the commission was confident that the heightened deployment of security officials, which he said was expected in the coming weeks, would further give citizens the confidence to turn up and vote on election day.

The INEC boss appealed to political parties and candidates not to exacerbate the feeling of insecurity in Anambra through unguarded utterances and actions.

According to him, “this could compound the security situation and make the work of the commission, political parties and security agencies even more difficult, adding that “It may also lead to voter apathy.

“This moment calls for statesmanship and maturity hence the decision to convene this emergency meeting. We are confident that the outcome of this engagement will be productive and helpful to the Commission and political parties as we continue to prepare for the poll.”

Note: This article have been indexed to our site. We do not claim legitimacy, ownership or copyright of any of the content above. To see the article at original source Click Here