Ekiti 2014: INEC accredits 29 domestic, international observers

The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, says it has accredited 29 domestic and international organisations to observe the Ekiti State governorship election scheduled for Saturday. This is contained in a press statement signed by Kayode Idowu, the Chief Press Secretary to INEC Chairman, Atahiru Jega, and issued on Wednesday in Abuja. The commission named the organisations to include Centre for Civic Education, Justice and Equity Organisation, NEPAD Nigeria, Reclaim Naija and Centre for Democracy and Development. Others are Forum of State Independent Electoral Commission of Nigeria, Nigerian Civil Society Situation Room (Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre), Nigerian Bar Association, Election Working Group, and Women Arise for Change Initiative. Mr. Idowu listed the accredited international observers to include EU Delegation – Abuja, International Foundation for Electoral Systems, IFES, U.S. Mission to Nigeria, the High Commission of Canada and the British High Commission. Others are UNDP/DGD – Abuja, Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Embassy of Switzerland, Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany, and Embassy of France. He said INEC has dedicated hotlines at its Situation Room in Abuja through which complaints could be lodged from any polling unit in the state for swift intervention. According to the statement, the telephone numbers are, 07098115257, 07098117563, 07098110916 and 07098116381, while 08101774434 and 07032492303 were dedicated for SMS only. Other channels of contact are INEC’s website domicile at inecnigeria.org, facebook at www.facebook.com/inecnigeria as well as it Twitter handle @inecnigeria. Mr. Idowu said that Ekiti with 16 local government areas has 177 wards, 2,195 polling units and 2,803 voting points. He also put the total number of registered voters in the state at 732,166 as at the post-March 2014 Continues Voter Registration, CVR, carried out by the commission. INEC also said gender distribution of the voter population indicated that 371, 419, constituting 51 per cent were females, while the remaining 360,747 were males and accounted for 49 per cent. It also stated that 18 registered political parties nominated candidates for the governorship election. It said that everything had been put in place by the Commission to make the election free, fair and credible. (NAN)