Facts & figures about the Governorship Election in Edo

The Edo State Governorship Election is scheduled for Saturday 21 September.

As part of preparations for the polls, the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, addressed a stakeholders’ meeting on Wednesday 11 September.

At the event were the Inspector-General of Police, IGP Kayode Egbetokun, the chairman of the Inter-Party Advisory Council in Edo State, chairmen of political parties, the candidates and their running mates, National Commissioners of INEC, the Resident Electoral Commissioner for Edo State, the Commissioner of Police, traditional and religious leaders, election observers, and the media.

The stakeholders’ meeting provided the opportunity for interaction among political parties’ candidates, accredited election observers, the media and other stakeholders.

Emerging from the interactive session, here are 10 facts about the forthcoming governorship election:

1) Eighteen (18) political parties are participating in the governorship election.

2) Edo State has a total of 2,629,025 registered voters.

3) There are 4,730 polling and collation locations made up of 4,519 polling units, 192 Ward collation centres, 18 Local Government collation centres and the State Collation Centre.

4) 184,438 Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) have been delivered to the State, following the conclusion of Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise.

5) The PVC figure in (4), comprises 119,206 new voters and 65,232 “verified applications for transfer into Edo from other States of the Federation, transfer within Edo State, cards reprinted after corrections of personal details or the replacement of lost or damaged cards”.

6) 134 groups made up of 124 domestic and 10 international observer groups have been accredited.

7) 1,836 observers are to be deployed across the State to monitor the election.

8) 721 journalists from 114 accredited media organisations will be covering the election

9) BVAS machines are being deployed for voter accreditation at polling units and for the upload of results to the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal.

10) The Nigeria Police Force is deploying 35, 000 policemen while other security agencies will provide 8000 officers, to ensure adequate security before, during and after the polls.