We Are Ready For Bayelsa Senatorial By-election – INEC

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has expressed its readiness to conduct a transparent, free and fair senatorial bye-elections in Bayelsa West and Central on October 31.

State Resident Commissioner (INEC), Cyril Omorogbe, at a press briefing at the weekend said the commission was 80 per cent ready for the poll.

“We have made adequate preparation for what we need in terms of logistics, transporting materials, ad-hoc staff. The non-sensitive materials will be transported shortly, while sensitive materials will be transported just few days before the election. We have held stakeholders briefing with political parties and met with candidates for the election.

“At this point I can say we are 80 per cent ready for the election. 80 per cent because the items that are yet to be delivered to us we can’t count as if we have received them, but on our part in terms of preparation, we have made sure we will conduct a free, fair and credible election,” he said.

Omorogbe disclosed that with 13 different political parties taking part in the bye-elections across five local government areas in two senatorial districts, the results would be electronically transmitted from each polling units.

He assured that security would be adequately provided for the election, while the electorate are expected to adhere strictly to the COVID-19 protocols.

“It will be electronically transmitted, like in Edo State, where results were transmitted from polling units. Later in the day you will now see a formal collation of results where a winner will be announced. But the first set is to see that the results are transmitted from the poling unit.

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“In terms of the Polling Units (PUs), we have 1,270 polling units and I understand there are problems with flood which might look challenging if some areas are flooded, but keeping my fingers crossed, I think we can conduct elections in those polling units,” he said.