The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has revealed that only three political parties out of 17 participating in the forthcoming Edo state governorship election uploaded the details of their agents for all levels of polling and collation, while one party has no single agent for any level of voting or collation.
INEC National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Sam Olumekun, said in a statement issued on Thursday that the commission had replaced the manual process for accreditation of observers, media, polling and collation agents with dedicated portals to which the required information, including photographs, is uploaded.
He stressed that political parties are subsequently required to upload the details of their agents for polling units and collation centres for all elections.
The National Commissioner explained that for the Edo State governorship election, the portal opened on July 17, 2024, and automatically shut down at midnight on July 30, 2024, as indicated in Item 9 on the timetable and schedule of activities for the election released almost a year ago in September 2023.
He said: “In Edo State, there are 4,519 polling units and 211 collation centres, comprising 192 ward centres, 18 local government centres and the state collation centre in Benin City. A political party fielding candidate in the election is expected to nominate 4,730 agents.
“From the 17 parties participating in the election, the Commission expected a cumulative figure of 80,410 agents. However, only 44,687 were uploaded to the portal, made up of 43,043 polling, 1,452 wards, 179 local government and 13 state collation agents. Put together, the 17 political parties nominated 55.6 per cent of the expected number of agents.
“Three political parties uploaded the details of their agents for all levels of polling and collation, while one party has no single agent for any level of voting or collation.”
Olumekun stressed that a summary of the submissions by political parties has been uploaded on the commission’s website and social media platforms for public information.