The ruling All Progressives Congress, Peoples Democratic Party, Social Democratic Party and 13 other political parties are jostling to produce the next governor of Ekiti State in today’s election.
The exercise is scheduled to hold across the 2,445 polling units in the 16 local government areas of the state as the Independent Electoral Commission begin the electronic transmission of results to ensure more transparency in collation of results.
The other parties include Accord Party, African Action Congress, African Democratic Congress, Action Democratic Party, All Progressives Grand Alliance, Allied Peoples Movement, Action Peoples Party, Labour Party, New Nigeria People’s Party, National Rescue Movement, Peoples Redemption Party, Young Progressives Party and Zenith Labour Party.
Sequel to the signing into law the Electoral Bill, assented to by the President Muhammadu Buhari on February 25, 2022, the Independent National Electoral Commission has confirmed that it will begin the electronic transmission of results with the Ekiti governorship election. It’s the first election the commission is conducting since the all-important bill became law.
The Act empowers the commission to transmit election results in a way it determines.
Section 50 of the Act reads, “Subject to section 63 of this Act, voting at an election and transmission of results under this Act shall be in accordance with the procedure determined by the Commission.”
Asked if the commission would commence the much-awaited electronic transmission of result with the election, Mr Rotimi Oyekanmi, the Chief Press Secretary to the INEC, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, said in an interview with one of our correspondents, “Yes, the Ekiti governorship election results will be transmitted electronically.
“After the election and completion of the result management procedure at the polling unit, the Presiding Officer would transmit a clear image of the Form EC8A for purposes of collation. This image goes to the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV).
He however noted that there would still be manual transmission of results to complement the electronic option. He added, “The PO (Presiding Officer) will also deliver by hand, the hard copy of the Form EC8A and the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System to the Registration Area Collation Officer.”
749,065 voters to elect new governor
Meanwhile, only about 749,065 voters will elect the next governor of the state. The figure is the number of registered voters who had, as at Monday, collected their permanent voter cards from INEC. There are 988,923 registered voters in the state.
As part of efforts to ensure a smooth election, the joint team of security agencies deployed for the election for the second day embarked on a show of force round Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, on Friday.
The team which lined up two Armoured Personnel Carriers and 13 trucks conveying personnel of Nigerian Army, police and Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, moved from the police headquarters to major streets of Ado Ekiti, thus causing heavy traffic along the routes, just as police helicopters engaged in aerial surveillance.
While the police deployed 17,374 personnel, the Nigeria Civil Defence and Security Corps deployed 9,747 personnel, in addition to the heavy deployment of men of the Nigerian Army. The Federal Fire Service also brought into the state men and fire-fighting trucks for the election.
