5.4m voters to decide Bayelsa, Imo, Kogi gov’ship polls — INEC

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said a total of 5,409,438 registered voters comprising 1,056-862 in Bayelsa State; 2,419,922 in Imo State; and 1,932,654 in Kogi State, will determine the outcome of the November 11 governorship elections in the three states.

The National Commissioner and Chairman Information and Voter Education Committee of INEC, Mr Sam Olumekun, said this on Tuesday in Abuja at the end of the commission’s regular meeting, which among other issues, reviewed preparations for the off-cycle governorship elections in the three states.

This is as INEC said it would hold a mock accreditation exercise in selected polling units (PUs) on Saturday, 14 October, across the three states.

“As provided in the Timetable and Schedule of Activities, soft copies of the complete register of voters for each state will be presented to the political parties participating in the elections.

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“For emphasis, 16 political parties are sponsoring candidates in Bayelsa State, 17 in Imo State, and all the 18 parties in Kogi State.

“State chairmen of political parties or their designated representatives are invited to attend the event which will take place at the collation centres in the state headquarters of the commission in Lokoja, Owerri and Yenagoa on Thursday, 12th October, 2023 at 10.00 am,” Olumekun said.

The INEC official said in furtherance of its commitment to deepen the deployment of technology for voter accreditation and result management, the commission has finalised preparations for mock accreditation of voters in the three states to test-run the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and uploading of polling units (PU) results to the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV).

He said, “The exercise will take place simultaneously in the three states on Saturday 14th October 2023 from 8.30am to 2.30pm.

“The list of designated polling units for each state has already been uploaded to our website and social media platforms.

“Lessons learnt from the exercise will be taken into consideration to ensure the seamless deployment of both the BVAS and IReV on election day. This is strictly a test run and not the actual election.”

Olumekun urged registered voters in the selected PUs to turn up with their permanent voter cards (PVCs) for the exercise.