Ahead of the September 21 Edo state governorship election, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said that only three political parties out of 17 participating in the election uploaded the details of their agents for all levels of polling and collation.
The electoral body also revealed that 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 in a statement issued Thursday the 17 political parties nominated 44,687 agents out of the expected cumulative figure of 80,410.
The number of party agents nominated, he said, represented 55.6 per cent of the expected number of agents.
TheHintsNews reports 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, are uploaded.
Olumekun stressed that political parties were 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 17th July 2024 and automatically shut down at midnight on 30th July 2024 as indicated on 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 ward, 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.”