The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said only 44,687 out of 80,410 party agents were expected from 17 political parties to participate in the September 21 Edo State governorship election.
The electoral umpire said the leading political parties in the race, the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP), the All Progressives Congress (APC), and the Labour Party (LP), failed to submit the required number of expected agents.
According to INEC, each political party was expected to submit a total of 4,730 agents, for the 4,519 polling units and 211 collation centres in Edo State.
Both PDP and APC had 4,519 agents each while LP submitted 4,518 agents. This is less 211 than the expected number of agents.
The INEC National Commissioner, Sam Olumekun, who is also Chairman of Information and Voter Education Committee, disclosed that Boot Party (BP) submitted no single agent for the election.
Olumekun explained that the commission opened portal for parties to upload details of their agents on July 17, which automatically shut down at midnight on July 30.
“In Edo State, there are 4,519 polling units and 211 collation centres, comprising 192 ward centres, 18 local government centres and the state collation centre in Benin city.
“A political party fielding candidate in the election is expected to nominate 4,730 agents,” he said.
The National Commissioner disclosed that the summary of the 44,687 uploaded agents is made up of 43,043 polling, 1,452 ward, 179 local government and 13 state collation agents.
“Put together, the 17 political parties nominated 55.6 percent of the expected number of agents.
“Three political parties uploaded the details of their agents for all levels of polling and collation while one party has no single agent for any level of voting or collation,” he said.
