2019 election: INEC discloses number of political parties to...

2019 election: INEC discloses number of political parties to contest

The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has disclosed that the 2019 general elections will be contested by 91 registered political parties and a total voting population of 84, 004, 084.

INEC’s National Commissioner and Chairman of Information and Voters Education Committee, Festus Okoye, said this on Saturday in Lagos.

Okoye said at a news briefing that the election would take place in 1, 558 Constituencies and 774 Local Government Areas throughout the federation.

“The Collation of Results will take place in 8, 809 Registration Areas/Wards and in 119, 973

Polling Units and 57, 023 Voting Points nationwide,’’ he said.

Okoye also said that the Presidential Election would be contested by a total of 73 candidates, while the Governorship election would feature a total of 1, 068 candidates in 29 States of the federation.

“The 109 Senate seats will be contested by 1, 904 candidates, while the 360 seats in the House of Representatives will be contested by a total of 4, 680 candidates.

“The 991 State Constituency elections will be contested by a total of 14, 583 candidates. The 68 Area Council seats in the Federal Capital Territory will be contested by 806 candidates,’’ he said.

The INEC National Commissioner said that the commission would also conduct Area Council elections in the FCT, Abuja.

“A total of 806 candidates will contest the election. This will involve 105 Chairmanship candidates and 701 Councillorship candidates,’’ he said.

Okoye disclosed that the commission had started recruiting Collation and Returning Officers from senior academic staff of various federal universities in the country.

He explained that two collation officers would be in charge of each of the 8, 809 Registration Areas nationwide, to facilitate the timely collation of results.

Okoye said a total of 814, 453 ad-hoc staff had been recruited nationwide and were being trained for all the strands of elections, while the Transport Unions would work in conjunction with the Federal Road Safety Commission in the deployment and retrieval of electoral materials.

He disclosed that the collection of Permanent Voter’s Cards would continue at the Local Government Offices of the commission, until Feb. 8, 2019.

“Thereafter, INEC will recall all uncollected PVCs for safekeeping, pending the conclusion of the two strands of elections in the electoral calendar,’’ Okoye said.

He said the commission had released guidelines for the accreditation of domestic and foreign media groups and organisations, introduced the use of braille jackets, magnifying glasses and assistive posters for persons with disability and also validated a framework for IDP Voting.

Okoye assured that INEC would obey all court orders, conduct the elections based on legal and constitutional stipulations, the Rule of Law and Due process and urged the media to support the commission to deliver on its mandate.

The Presidential and National Assembly elections are scheduled for Feb. 16, while the Governorship and State Assembly elections are slated for March 2.

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