INEC completes distribution of election materials in Borno

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says it has completed the distribution of election materials to facilitate smooth conduct of Saturday’s Presidential and National Assembly election in Borno.

The Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in the state, Alhaji Mohammed Ibrahim, made this known to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Maiduguri.

Ibrahim said that the commission distributed election materials across the 27 local government areas in the state between Thursday and Friday.

He explained that electoral materials were dispatched to the 13 distant local government areas on Thursday, while the materials were transported to the remaining 14 local councils close to the state capital on Friday.

“We transported election materials and personnel to long distant council areas on Thursday, and we supplied the materials to Maiduguri and nearby areas on Friday.

“All arrangements for logistics, deployment of over 22,000 workers are completed and ready for the election.

“I inspected facilities at the Teachers Village, Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and other camps as well as polling units in Jere and Maiduguri Local Government Areas, to make corrections and ensure that all is set for the election,” the REC said.

Ibrahim said that the commission had adopted proactive measures to ensure that sensitive and non-sensitive election materials, as well as workers, were deployed to all the polling units on good time.

According to him, INEC registered more than 2.3 million voters for the 2019 elections in the state, but 160,863 Permanent Voter Cards (PVC) were uncollected at the end of the collection exercise.

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The REC said further that 409,833 IDPs were captured on the commission’s record of the total voters registered in the state.

Ibrahim explained that the commission had developed a framework and guidelines for IDPs to vote to enable them to exercise their franchise.

He explained that the affected IDPs from eight local government areas of the state would vote in various camps located in Maiduguri and other communities in the state.

The REC listed the affected council areas as Abadam, Guzamala, Marte, Dikwa, Ngala, Kukawa, Mobbar and Kala Balge.

Ibrahim said that more than 11,000 security personnel had been deployed to the 27 local government areas of the state to facilitate the conduct of peaceful and hitch-free elections.

He added that the personnel were deployed to secure 3,933 polling units, election workers, election materials and INEC offices.

Ibrahim called on political parties, candidates and electorate as well as observers to ensure orderliness and peaceful conduct of the election.

NAN reports that 41 political parties fielded about 431 candidates for the governorship, National and State House of Assembly candidates for the election in the state.