The candidates of political parties contesting the November 16 governorship election in Ondo State will sign a peace accord on November 8 2024, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), said on Thursday.
Although 17 political parties are fielding candidates for the November 16 contest, political pundits believe the contest is mainly between incumbent -Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa who is contesting as the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC); former Deputy Governor of the State and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Ajayi Agboola and the Olugbenga Edema of New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP).
The Chairman of INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, during the fourth quarterly consultative meeting of the commission with Civil Society Organisations in Abuja, said the peace agreement will take place early next week.
He said, “As early as next week, the commission will undertake a final readiness assessment of our preparations for the Ondo election, meet with our officials, engage with stakeholders and interact with the security agencies and transport providers.
“On this note, I am also glad to announce that the National Peace Committee under the leadership of our respected former Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, is holding the signing of the Peace Accord for parties and candidates in Ondo State on Friday.”
The INEC Chairman also said that mock accreditation of voters and result upload to the IReV has been scheduled for Wednesday November, 6 2024 in 12 Polling Units across six Local Government Areas in the three Senatorial Districts of Ondo State.
According to him, collection of Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs) from the recent voter registration, ended two days ago, adding that a total of 64,273 PVCs were collected by voters out of the 89,777 cards delivered to the State.
Yakubu said this represents an impressive collection rate of 71.6 per cent.
While appreciating CSOs that helped to mobilise registered voters to collect their card, the INEC chairman said the commission would upload to its website the cumulative figure of all PVCs collected in each of the 3,933 Polling Units across the State.
He said that this would serve for the purpose of result management as provided by law and for public information.
Yakubu said, “As usual, we have learnt lessons from previous elections. We have improved on the voter accreditation process and the upload of results to the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal.
“There have been similar improvements in observer and media accreditation. Our voter education efforts are ongoing. The capacity of election duty staff has improved with hands-on training for especially Polling Unit officials.
“As we approach the Ondo State governorship election, there will be further improvements, especially in the areas of logistics for the movement of personnel and materials to both land and riverine locations to enable the prompt commencement of polls as well as the management of the processes on Election Day from voting to declaration of result.”
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