Ahead of the November 16 Ondo State governorship election, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said that the signing of the peace accord will be held on November 8, 2024.
INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, announced this on Thursday during the fourth quarterly consultative meeting with Civil Society Organisations in Abuja.
“As early as next week, the Commission will undertake a final readiness assessment of our preparations for the Ondo election, meet with our officials, engage with stakeholders and interact with the security agencies and transport providers,” he said.
Seventeen political parties fielded candidates for the November 16 contest on who gets to become the next governor of the state.
However, according to keen political watchers, the contest is mainly between Incumbent governor, Lucky Aiyedatiwa who is contesting as the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), former deputy governor, Ajayi Agboola the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Olugbenga Edema of New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP)
The INEC Chairman disclosed that mock accreditation of voters and result upload to the IReV has been scheduled for Wednesday, November 6 2024 in 12 Polling Units across six Local Government Areas in the three Senatorial Districts of the State.
Yakubu noted that collection of Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs) from the recent voter registration, ended two days ago, disclosing that a total of 64,273 PVCs were collected by voters out of the 89,777 cards delivered to the State.
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According to him, this represents an impressive collection rate of 71.6 per cent.
While appreciating CSOs that helped to mobilise registered voters to collect their cards, the INEC boss said the Commission would upload to its website the cumulative figure of all PVCs collected in each of the 3,933 Polling Units across the State.
Yakubu noted that this would serve for result management as provided by law and public information.
He added: “As usual, we have learnt lessons from previous elections. We have improved on the voter accreditation process and the upload of results to the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal.
“There have been similar improvements in observer and media accreditation. Our voter education efforts are ongoing. The capacity of election duty staff has improved with hands-on training for especially Polling Unit officials.
“As we approach the Ondo State governorship election, there will be further improvements, especially in the areas of logistics for the movement of personnel and materials to both land and riverine locations to enable the prompt commencement of polls as well as the management of the processes on Election Day from voting to declaration of result.”
