INEC’s Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in Benue state, Nentawe Yilwatda, has disclosed that 28 candidates under various political parties in the state would be participating in the 2019 governorship election.
Yilwatda, made the disclosure at a public enlightenment campaign organised by the National Orientation Agency (NOA) in Makurdi.
He said that 28 governorship candidates, 42 senatorial candidates and 119 House of Representatives will be contesting the elections in different parties across the 23 Local Government Areas of the state.
The REC added that the state have 2.84 million voters with over 400,000 Permanent Voters Card (PVCs) yet to be collected by their owners while he affirmed that results of the elections will be transmitted from all 3,687 polling units in the state directly to the collation centres in Makurdi and Abuja.
Yilwatda explained that the new measures taken by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was meant to completely eradicate incidences of rigging, kidnapping and molestation of its workers all in a bid to tamper with election results.
He said the commission is currently doing everything possible to ensure more people come out to vote in 2019, recalling that in the 2015 elections in the state, only 36 percent of voters performed their civic duties while the remaining 64 percent shunned the exercise with Ado local government area topping the list of voters apathy.
Earlier, the state Director of NOA, Anthony Adokwu, emphasised that the meeting was aimed at reminding stakeholders to carry out their civic responsibility and to do so according to the rules of the game.
