As part of the preparations for the conduct of the 2019 general elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC has procured smart card readers, additional ballot boxes and voting cubicles.
Mahmood Yakubu, INEC Chairman who announced this Wednesday when he received the European Union, EU Ambassadors at the Commission’s headquarters in Abuja said INEC was at the moment putting finishing touches to the preparations for the forthcoming polls.
Yakubu told the EU Ambassadors that INEC has implemented a number of preparatory activities for the conduct of the elections such as production and delivery of permanent voter cards to states for collection at the ward level, production of training manual for adhoc staff who recruitment is on going and training would soon commence.
He promised that INEC will not disappoint the international community and Nigeria but would conduct free and fair elections that would further deepen the nation’s democracy and acknowledged the contribution of the international community, particularly the EU to the planning and implementation of the processes for smooth and credible elections in Nigeria.
“All the heavy items for the election are been procured; additional ballot boxes, voting cubicles, smart card readers, permanent voter cards have also been delivered to the states for collection by citizens. Collection will begin at ward level from today the 16 of January to the 21 and thereafter collection will continue to the 8 of February in our various local government areas.
“We have concluded and published the guidelines for the 2019 general elections. We produced the manual for the election which will be used for the training of adhoc staff to be used for elections. We are recruiting and will soon start training adhoc staff for the election. We are good to go for the 2019 general elections”, Yakubu said.
Earlier, Ketil Karlsen, EU Ambassador to Nigeria and Head of Delegation of EU disclosed that the EU long term observers were already in Nigeria to monitor the activities leading to the elections and pledged the unbiased support of the Union to ensure the conduct of free, fair and credible elections in 2019.
“We are not here to support any particular candidate or any particular party or any particular ideology but we
as true partners of Nigeria to see the continuation of the consolidation of democracy”, Karlsen assured.
On her part, Catrina Laing, British High Commissioner to Nigeria, charged INEC to maintain its independence while discharging the 2019 election duty and promised the support of British to the success of the February/ March national and state elections in Nigeria.
Meanwhile, the Eu Ambassador to Nigeria, Karlsen during the visit commissioned the Election Monitoring and Support Centre built by INEC and equipped by EU Centre for Electoral Support, ECES.
James Kwen, Abuja
