The saying that what goes around comes around is probably being enacted at the moment in relation to the September 21, 2024 Edo State governorship election, as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), appears to be in a quandary as to how to find willing citizens, even for the money, to work as polling agents in the Edo governorship election.
INEC’s under-par performance in the 2023 general election would appear to have left citizens too stunned by the sham of it all to want to have anything to do with INEC going forward, leaving the integrity- challenged electoral body to bemoan its fate and blame political parties for their inability to register enough agents for the Edo poll.
In a statement earlier today (Thursday, August 8) by its National Commissioner and Chairman Information and Voter Education Committee, Sam Olumekun, INEC expressed disappointment at what it described as “the failure of the 17 political parties participating in the Edo State governorship election to nominate over 35,723 agents for polling units and collation centres.”
According to reports, the not-so-happy electoral umpire lamented that out of the expected cumulative figure of 80,410 agents, the participating political parties have so far uploaded the details of only 44,687 agents on the commission’s portal, leaving a whopping 35,723 details yet to be uploaded, barely a month to the election scheduled to hold on September 21.
INEC also revealed that uploaded details on the portal are made up of 43,043 polling, 1,452 ward, 179 local government and 13 State collation agents.
Giving further details, the commission explained that only three political parties uploaded their agents for all levels of polling and collation while one party has no single agent for any level of voting or collation.
The statement read: “The commission met on Thursday and, among other matters, reviewed the ongoing preparations for the Edo and Ondo State governorship elections.
“Nigerians may recall that since 2020, the commission has replaced the manual process for accreditation of observers, media, polling and collation agents with dedicated portals to which the required information, including photographs, is uploaded.
“Political parties were subsequently required to upload the details of their agents for polling units and collation centres for all elections.
“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 nine on the timetable and schedule of activities for the election released almost a year ago in September 2023.
“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.”
The electoral umpire further explained that “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% 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. A summary of the submissions by political parties has been uploaded to our website and social media platforms for public information,” Olumekun lamented.
