The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said details of only 44,687 out of 80,410 expected party agents for Edo governorship election were submitted on its dedicated portal by the July 30 deadline.
According to Vanguard, this is contained in a statement issued in Abuja on Thursday by Sam Olumekun, INEC National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee.
Olumekun said that the commission met and, among other matters, reviewed the preparations for the Edo and Ondo governorship elections.
He recalled that since 2020, INEC has replaced the manual process for accreditation of observers, media, polling agents, and collation agents with dedicated portals to which the required information, including photographs, was uploaded.
He recalled that political parties were, subsequently, required to upload the details of their agents for polling units and collation centres for all elections.
Olumekun said that for the Edo Governorship Election, the portal opened on July 17 and will automatically shut down at midnight on July 30.
“In Edo, 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.
“A political party fielding a 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 polls, 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 said.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that, based on infographics on the political party polling and collation agents issued by INEC, 43,043 agents were nominated for polling unit agents.
While the APC, PDP, and NNPP nominated the highest number of agents each, followed by LP and ZLP with 4,518, the APP submitted nine, and the Booth Party (BP) did not submit any agents.
Also, while 13 parties, including APC and PDP, submitted one state collation agent each, the ADC, APGA, BP, and SDP did not dominate any.
NAN also reports that of the 179 local government collation agents nominated, the summary shows that the AA, AAC, APC, LP, PDP, NNPP, and ZLP nominated eight each, APGA and APP nominated one each, and ADC, BP, and SDP did not nominate any agent.
Equally, of the 1,452 Registration Areas (RAs) agents nominated for the election, the APC, NNPP, and PDP nominated the highest number of 192 each.
This is followed by AA, which nominated 190, while Accord party, ADC, APP, BP, and SDP did not nominate any for the category.