1.9m voters to participate in Osun governorship election, says INEC

By Deborah Oladejo, Osogbo

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Friday said total number of registered voters for the July 16 governorship election in Osun State stood at 1, 955,657.

Also, the number of polling units stood at 3,763, while number of registration areas for the election stood at 332.

Speaking at a roundtable programme organised for media executives in Osogbo in preparation for the election, National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee (IVEC), Festus Okoye, further said that under Osun State electoral demography, 30 local government areas would participate in the election.

Okoye added that the number of political parties contesting the governorship election is15 just as total number of parties in the state stood at 18.

Okoye emphasised the need for media practitioners to support the Commission in its efforts to ensure credible election in Osun State.

He assured that the Osun election will be conducted with constitutional rights and legal instruments in order to achieve the needed result and also give credit to the entire process.

Okoye called on political parties to make transportation arrangement for their polling units agents on election day saying that past experiences have shown that stranded party agents would be dragging spaces with the adhoc staff of the commission in buses hires by the INEC.

“It’s important for political parties to make provisions for the polling agents. We don’t want a situation where party agents will be dragging spaces with our presiding officers in buses we hire.

“The bus we provide carries sensitive and non-sensitive materials and the presiding officers and sometimes, with the security agents. We don’t want a situation where polling agents will insist on getting into our vehicles at the detriment of our workers. It’s highly unacceptable for the type of materials we carry. This is why we are calling on the political parties to get vehicles for their agents,” he said.

Okoye also called on the parties to ensure that their agents put on accreditation tags provided by the commission alone.