The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has assured Nigerians that the forthcoming Anambra governorship election scheduled for November 8 will be conducted smoothly, despite minor network disruptions recorded during a recent mock accreditation exercise in the state.
INEC Chairman, Professor Joash Amupitan, SAN, gave the assurance on Tuesday in Abuja at a meeting of the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES), which he co-chaired with the National Security Adviser, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, represented by Mr Hassan Abdullahi.
Presiding over his first ICCES meeting since assuming office, Amupitan said a week-long readiness assessment across Anambra had confirmed that the commission was fully prepared for the poll.
He acknowledged that network hitches were observed in 12 polling units during the mock exercise but stressed that technical adjustments were being made to ensure a seamless process on election day.
According to him, INEC will deploy about 24,000 personnel across 5,718 of the state’s 5,720 polling units, explaining that voting will not take place in two units with no registered voters.
Collation of results, he added, would follow a structured process from 326 ward centres to 21 local government collation centres, before concluding at the State Collation Centre in Awka.
Amupitan also confirmed that the commission had extended the period for Permanent Voter Card (PVC) collection from October 29 to November 2 to allow more registered voters to obtain their cards.
He disclosed that only 63.9 percent of eligible voters had collected their PVCs so far, a figure the extension aims to improve.
He expressed appreciation to security agencies for their commitment to ensuring a peaceful and credible exercise, revealing that INEC had worked closely with the Police, Department of State Services (DSS), Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), and the military to review flashpoints and strengthen security surveillance.
