No fewer than 15,000 National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members will participate in the forthcoming July 14 governorship election in Ekiti State.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) National Commissioner, Prince Adedeji Soyebi, disclosed this on Monday while featuring on Ekiti State Television (EKTV) programme, Daybreak Nigeria.
Soyebi said: “the deployment of 15,000 corps members is one of the measures put in place INEC to ensure fairness to all parties and the credibility of the exercise.”
He also stressed that the electoral agency was collaborating with security agencies to ensure safety of officials, voters and electoral materials to be used for the poll.
The INEC chief assured political parties and voters that the electoral umpire would be fair to all parties and would deliver an election in line with global best electoral practices.
He urged political parties taking part in the poll to submit the list of their agents in line with the time allowed by law.
Any party that fails to submit the names of its agents on time, according to him, would lose the privilege of being represented at the poll.
Speaking on possibility of electronic voting in Nigeria, Soyebi said, ”We are not definitely going to have it 2019 but we will get there very soon.”
Responding to a question, Soyebi said it was possible to conduct all elections in a single day rather than having a staggered process for general elections.
His words, “It is doable but we need to increase our level of voter education and awareness. We can have different colours of ballot papers for each of the election.
“It will save the country of lots of expenses, time, money and manpower.
“It is the law that determines the sequence of elections and not INEC.”
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