INEC
The Senate Committee on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has assured the people of Anambra State that the governorship election will hold as scheduled, notwithstanding some insinuations in some quarters that it will not hold.
The Chairman of the Committee, Senator Suleiman Nasif gave the assurance yesterday when he led other members of the committee to a meeting with INEC officials and chairmen and secretaries of various political parties at the INEC headquarters in Awka.
Senator Nasif, in company of Senators Mao Ohuabunwa, Aliyu Sabi and Ali Wakili, disclosed that members were in the state to find out their challenges and put heads together with them towards proffering solutions to them.
The Senator, who conducted an inspection tour on the State commission facility, also charged the INEC to ensure transparency and credibility in the conduct of poll, saying that the success of the election would serve as litmus test for the 2019 general elections.
The lawmaker urged security operatives to ensure peaceful atmosphere during and after the election, adding that their presence was important to the successful conduct of the poll, just as he called on the electorate to come out enmass and cast their votes for their preferred candidate.
“We came here to see things for our selves, have seen and noted the preparations by the commission. Preparation for any election starts from Abuja… we are impressed with arrangements on ground so far.
“We met with civil society groups in the state and they are satisfied with the environment. Their questions bordering on INEC were promptly answered. Our responsibility is the over site functions. We are quite impressed with what we have seen. We expect to see free and fair election in Anambra.”
He added, “Our assurance to Anambra people is that the election will hold on November18, this year. All eyes are focused on Anambra and we are not leaving any stone unturned.”
The INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner in the state, Dr Nkwachukwu Orji explained that the commission would be deploying one card reader machine per voting point, saying that all personnel have been trained on operating the machines.
Orji said the commission would be deploying field technical officers who will handle any challenges arising from the malfunctioning of the card readers.
“We have trained the card reader operators…we have produced a hand book for them and it will be in the kit of each staff.”
He observed that the state was second in the country in terms of the collection of permanent voter’s cards, stressing that the collection of the cards would end on the fifteenth of this month.
