Osun 2022: 18 candidates will contest election — State INEC commissioner

Four months to the July 16th governorship election in Osun State, the state Resident Electoral Commissioner, Prof. Abdulganiy Olayinka Raji on Monday revealed that 18 candidates are to be fielded from 18 different political parties for the election.

The resident commissioner who made this known at the stakeholders meeting on the devolution of the continuous voters registration (CVR) exercise to registration areas (RAs/Wards) in the state, however, charged all stakeholders in the state to work towards the conduct of a successful Osun governorship election.

He remarked, “for the commission to conduct a free, fair, credible, acceptable, all-inclusive and conclusive election is quite an arduous task. But assured that the Commission is working round the clock to ensure adequate and watertight security is provided for all to exercise their franchise with ease.

“Undoubtedly, we cannot achieve a seamless and successful election without the cooperation of all stakeholders.

“We, therefore, solicit for your unalloyed support and genuine advice on every aspect of our operations. We all have crucial roles to play to ensure a peaceful and credible outcome, which will further affirm the maturity of our electoral process in particular and our democracy in general.

“The commission is equally re-assuring stakeholders that INEC is much more committed to providing a level playing field for all candidates and political parties partaking in the forthcoming election and be guided by its mission”.

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The commissioner also pledged that the commission would also do everything within the ambit of the law to ensure that people’s votes count.

According to him, the commission had embarked on various activities towards ensuring a successful conduct of the 2022 Governorship election which includes conversion of voting points to polling units to decongest existing PUs and to ease voting processes on election day.

“Also, in the recent conversion of Voting Points to Polling Units exercise carried out by the Commission in 2021, Seven Hundred and Fifty-Three (753) VPS were successfully converted to substantive Polling Units and the main purpose was to ensure that un-served and under-served voting public due to new settlements, relocations and attainment of 18 years of age by young Nigerians are taken care of.”

“Despite this effort of the Commission, members of the public have not taken advantage of this opportunity by either registering in these new Polling Units or transferring their voting rights to the PUs nearest to their residence.”

“The implication of this was that the existing Polling Units would still be congested leading to long queue of voters on the election day.”

He however appealed to stakeholders to assist the commission by informing the public to register or transfer to the new PUs so as to avoid zero polling units in Osun State.