Some political parties lack polling, collation agents in States with candidates, INEC reveals

In a startling revelation, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC has disclosed that several political parties with candidates in the upcoming Governorship elections in Bayelsa, Imo, and Kogi States have failed to nominate polling and collation agents in certain states.

There are a total of 16 political parties sponsoring candidates in Bayelsa State, while both Imo and Kogi States have 18 parties each vying for the gubernatorial seats. These elections are set to take place in 10,470 polling units, with the exception of 40 polling units where no registered voters exist.

In a statement by National Commissioner & Chairman Information and Voter Education Committee, Sam Olumekun on Tuesday in Abuja, said “In continuation of the Commission’s preparations for the three off-cycle Governorship elections in Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi States, the Commission is making available two publications on the forthcoming polls as follows:

“Information Booklet”
This publication contains an infographic summary of registered voters and Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs) collected by Local Government Areas (LGAs) as well as the distribution of registered voters by gender, age group, occupation and disability.

“The publication also includes the list of candidates and detailed information on the two polling units in Bayelsa and 38 in Imo State without registered voters. The Commission has repeatedly said that elections will not hold in these polling units. No materials have been produced for these locations and no officials will be deployed to them.

“List of Polling and Collation Agents

“Sixteen political parties are sponsoring candidates for the election in Bayelsa State and 18 in both Imo and Kogi States. The elections will be held in 10,470 polling units (excluding the 40 polling units without registered voters).

“Each political party is expected to nominate polling agents for all the polling units as well as 649 Ward, 56 LGA and three State collation centres.

“However, at the close of the deadline for uploading the list of agents to the INEC dedicated portal by political parties, 34,704 agents were uploaded for Bayelsa State, 65,274 for Imo State and 37,995 for Kogi State, making a total of 137,973 polling and collation agents for the three States.

“However, the detailed breakdown shows that not all the parties nominated agents for the polling and collation centres across the States. Indeed, some political parties have no polling unit or collation agents in some States despite having candidates in the election.

“The information booklet as well as the comprehensive summary of the agents and their distribution by polling units as well the Ward, LGA and State collation centres have been uploaded to our website and social media platforms for public information.”