Ondo polls: No face mask, no voting, PTF says

The Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 has warned that voters without face masks would not be allowed to cast their votes in the Saturday’s governorship election in Ondo State.

The National Coordinator of the PTF on COVID-19, Dr. Sani Aliyu, said this on Thursday in Abuja at the joint national briefing of the taskforce.

According to him, all voters, candidates and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) would be required to honour the various anti-COVID-19 guidelines already put in place for elections.

He, however, urged candidates and officials of the 17 political parties taking part in the election to lead by example during the exercise.

He said that the country could not afford losing the gains made in the national response efforts during the election.

Aliyu said that the election process would be protected from the spread of the virus, and that personal protective equipment would be provided for electoral officers, just as all the materials to be used and as well as the voting environment would be properly disinfected.

“With regards to the election in Ondo. As we all know, on Saturday Ondo State will hold governorship election across 18 local government areas. We are expecting about 1.5 million eligible people to cast their votes across 3,000 polling units across the state.

“This is clearly a huge exercise. It is a huge exercise that will also come with risks, therefore in order to protect the voters, the election officials and candidates in the electoral process, we urge everyone to strictly comply with the INEC guidelines that we have worked with INEC to set up with regards to safe elections.

“For clarity, these are some of the elements of the guidelines. Facemasks are mandatory across all the polling units locations. No facemask, no voting. Physical distancing must be enforced, especially in queueing and polling units. Alcohol-based sanitisers will be provided. Polls will commence at 8:30am, to close at 2:30pm, but anybody on the outer queue by 2:30pm will still be allowed to vote. There will be two queues; an outer queue and an inner queue.

“Voters will be brought into the inner queue periodically from the outer queue into the inner queue in order to prevent overcrowding. Chairs, tables and work places will be disinfected regularly, PPE will be provided to polling staff, including infrared thermometers, for temperature monitoring and at the close of the polls, staff will ensure that materials are disinfected properly and packaged carefully,” Aliyu said.

While urging the candidates and their parties to lead by example, the National Coordinator said that public safety is government main priority and urged voters, candidates and all election officials to adhere strictly to the safety measures that has been put in place with INEC.