INEC records 87% readiness for Enugu North by-election

The Independent National Electoral Commission says it has recorded over 87 per cent preparedness for the forthcoming Enugu North Senatorial District by-election in Enugu State.

INEC’s Resident Electoral Commissioner in Enugu State, Dr Chukwuemeka Chukwu, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Enugu on Wednesday.

NAN recalls that INEC had scheduled June 20 for the by-election, while it announced and published the notice and timetable for the exercise on May 21.

Chukwu said non-sensitive materials had been sorted and were ready to be moved to the commission’s six local government area offices that make up the senatorial district.

“We are sending the non-sensitive materials today (June 3) to our council area offices involved and by Thursday (June 4), the non-sensitive materials will be further moved to INEC’s Registration Area Centres (RACs),” he said.

The REC further stated that the commission had fully configured and power-charged all the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System devices to ensure smooth conduct of the by-election.

He also said INEC had concluded all critical stakeholders’ engagements at the state, senatorial, and six local government area levels.

Chukwu said the engagements recorded massive turnout of stakeholders, with most of them asking relevant questions about the by-election, while answers were provided by the commission’s top officials.

According to him, four political parties will be fielding candidates for the by-election.

The REC explained that the political parties were those whose primary elections were monitored by INEC officials, with official reports written to the commission’s headquarters on the exercise.

“Why I will not mention the political parties yet is that we are waiting for our headquarters’ approval of the report written on the parties’ primaries conducted,” he said.

The REC said the commission would conduct training for various levels of officials for the by-election on Friday.

Chukwu added that within days, the commission would engage the police and other security agencies to ensure the protection of INEC officials and ad-hoc staff, as well as sensitive and non-sensitive materials and voters.

(NAN)