The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has disclosed that out of the 17 political parties participating in the upcoming Edo State governorship election, only three have uploaded the details of their agents for all levels of polling and collation. One party, however, has not submitted any agent information for any level of voting or collation.
In a statement released on Thursday, INEC National Commissioner and Chairman of the Information and Voter Education Committee, Sam Olumekun, explained that the commission has replaced the manual process of accrediting observers, media, polling, and collation agents with a dedicated online portal. Political parties are now required to upload their agents’ details, including photographs, to this portal for all elections.
The National Commissioner explained that for the Edo State governorship election, the portal opened on July 17, 2024, and automatically shut down at midnight on July 30, 2024, as indicated in Item 9 on the timetable and schedule of activities for the election released almost a year ago in September 2023.
He said: “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.
“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 wards, 179 local government and 13 state collation agents. Put together, the 17 political parties nominated 55.6 per cent 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.”
Olumekun stressed that a summary of the submissions by political parties has been uploaded on the commission’s website and social media platforms for public information.