INEC to appoint 11,000 observers and deploy 46,084 workers for the polls in Imo, Bayelsa, and Kogi.

For the impending off-cycle governorship elections in the states of Bayelsa, Imo, and Kogi, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has announced that it will assign 46,084 ad hoc and permanent staff members.

This was revealed on Friday by INEC Chairman Mahmood Yakubu at a meeting with the commission’s Resident Electoral Commissioners (REC) at the Abuja headquarters.

Mr. Yakubu stated that the commission is “finalising arrangements for vehicles and boats for land and maritime movement of personnel and materials” in order to prevent the logistical problems that have plagued Nigerian elections.

The elections will take place on Saturday, November 11.

5,409,438 registered voters will cast ballots in 10,510 polling places located throughout 649 electoral Wards in 56 Local Government Areas for the three elections, according to Mr. Yakubu.

He also mentioned that the three States had received delivery of all non-sensitive election materials.

“Other training and preparatory activities are on track,” he said, adding that the 2023 General Election had taught important lessons for better performance.

He deemed the commission’s fictitious accreditation at certain voting locations throughout the three states to be effective.

“We carried out a mock accreditation involving real voters in designated polling units in the three States last week,” he stated. Two goals were set for the activity. First, to evaluate the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System’s (BVAS) effectiveness, particularly with regard to voter biometric authentication. Second, to upload the outcome to the INEC Viewing Portal (IReV) for results viewing. Each of the two tests passed. We anticipate that the BVAS will perform better in the upcoming elections in terms of voter accreditation and result upload.