The chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof Mamood Yakubu has said the November 16 governorship election will be different from previous ones in terms of the number of candidates and the political parties participating in the exercise.
The chairman of the electoral umpire also urged staff of the commission in Bayelsa to be diligent and follow electoral guidelines in discharging their responsibilities throughout the governorship election in the state.
He assured that the commission was working hard to ensure that the election was credible, adding that everything will be done as scheduled in its time table.
Speaking during an interactive session with staff members of the commission in Yenegoa, Bayelsa, he urged the staff to safe guard election materials during the election.
“We are all employed to render service to the nation and that service is one of the most important we can render.
“We want to open the poll at 8a.m. All it required is hard work and early preparations. Let us do everything we can to open the boots at 8am.
“In 2015, we have 20 parties that fielded candidate, but in 2019 we have 45 parties fielding candidates,” Yakubu said.
He said that it means the process is expected to be longer than it was in 2015 especially in the collation of results before the final collation at the state headquarters.
Yakubu called for the collaboration among staff to ensure that where there were large concentrations of Internally Displaced Persons within the states, they were not disenfranchised in the election.
He assured the staff that the commission was keen about their welfare and security to deliver on their responsibilities.
The state INEC Resident Electoral Commissioners (REC), Pastor Monday Tom, assured the chairman that his team was ready for a free, fair, credible and peaceful election on November 16.
Tom said that the preparations for the election was in progress and on scheduled including the training electoral Officers.
“Also, logistics arrangements had reached advance stages as we have concluded all discussions with the boat suppliers and Transport Unions. Right now they are all being profiled by the security agencies.”
Yakubu had earlier inspected some INEC facilities and non sensitive election materials in some of its local government area offices in the state including Kolokumw/Opokuma and Yenagoa. (NAN)
