The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has announced that 17 politicians participating in the September 21 governorship election in Edo State have nominated a total of 44,687 agents.
This number falls short of the expected cumulative figure of 80,410 agents, representing only 55.6% of the anticipated total.
In a statement released in Abuja on Thursday, INEC National Commissioner and Chairman of the Information and Voter Education Committee, Sam Olumekun, explained that three political parties have submitted the details of their agents for all polling and collation levels, while one party has not nominated any agents for any level.
Olumekun noted that a summary of the political parties’ submissions has been made available on the commission’s website and social media platforms for public access. He reminded Nigerians that since 2020, the Commission has replaced the manual process for accrediting observers, media, polling, and collation agents with dedicated online portals. Political parties are required to upload their agents’ details, including photographs, to these portals.
“For the Edo State Governorship Election, the portal was open from July 17, 2024, and automatically closed at midnight on July 30, 2024, as outlined in the Timetable and Schedule of Activities for the election, released almost a year ago in September 2023,” Olumekun stated.
Edo State has 4,519 polling units and 211 collation centres, including 192 ward centres, 18 Local Government centres, and the State collation centre in Benin City.
A political party fielding a candidate in the election is expected to nominate 4,730 agents. Despite expecting a cumulative total of 80,410 agents from the 17 participating parties, only 44,687 agents were uploaded to the portal.
This includes 43,043 polling agents, 1,452 ward agents, 179 Local Government agents, and 13 State collation agents, making up 55.6% of the expected number of agents.