Ahead of Saturday’s House of Assembly election, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), on Wednesday said it would deploy the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machine, for the exercise in Ondo state.
The Acting Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), in the State, Oyekola Oyelami, disclosed this while supervising the distribution of the sensitive and non-sensitive materials meant for the weekend election in Akure, the state capital.
Oyelami, who was flanked by other officers of the electoral commission, said the electronic machine (BVAS) had been re-configured after its usage for the February 25 presidential and National Assembly election, noting that it would not be used for the March 18 – State’s parliament election.
He added that the materials being distributed by INEC at the premises of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), ahead of the Saturday State House of Assembly poll also includes, ballot papers and results sheet.
He noted that the materials would be transported to all 18 Local Government Areas of the State where they would be moved to the commission’s Registration Area Centres (RACs) before the polling units on Saturday.
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“By Thursday, these materials would be batched from there while on Friday, the materials would arrive at the RAC centers where they would pass the night and as early as 6 am on Saturday, they would be moved to the various polling units for the election.
“Aside from these, we would also be deploying the BVAS which has been reconfigured for the Saturday exercise. So, all of them are working perfectly now and would be used in the polling units,” the REC said.
While expressing INEC’s readiness for the election, Oyelami said that out of the 18 political parties that registered in the country, only 17 fielded candidates to participate in the House of Assembly election in the state.
According to him, the leadership of the participating political parties has held a series of meetings with INEC in ensuring peaceful conduct of the election.
“These political parties have already fielded their candidates that would participate in the Assembly election on Saturday and we have deployed our staff too for the timely arrival of material to the polling units.”
He, however, pleaded with the electorates in the state to troop out en mass for the exercise to elect their representatives at the parliamentary house.
While the Chairman of the Inter-party Advisory Council (IPAC), in the State, Adesanya Olaoluwa, who witnessed the distribution of the materials said the political parties are ready for the election.
Olaoluwa explained that the parties are optimistic that the electoral commission would deliver on its promises by ensuring the timely arrival of materials for the weekend exercise.
The IPAC chairman also reiterated that out of the registered 18 political parties in the country, only 17 would take part in the Saturday poll in the state.
“Truly, we have 17 political parties for the weekend election. Only Boot Party has no candidates for this exercise which would have made it 18”.
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