The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) disclosed on Friday that three out of 18 political parties eligible to participate in the forthcoming Ondo State governorship election have failed to submit polling or collation agents.
Sam Olumekun, INEC’s National Commissioner and Chairman of the Information and Voter Education Committee, revealed in a statement that a total of 74,790 agents are expected to participate in the election. However, only 32.3% of the required agents have been provided by the political parties.
“The portal opened on 20th August 2024 and automatically shut down at midnight on Monday 30th September 2024 as indicated on item 9 on the Timetable and Schedule of Activities for the election released almost a year ago in September 2023,” Olumekun stated.
The affected parties are the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA), Boot Party, and National Rescue Movement (NRM). Conversely, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leads with 3,931 agents, followed by the All Progressives Congress (APC) with 3,892 agents, and the Social Democratic Party (SDP) with 2,757 agents.
“Following the closure of the portal for the upload of polling and collation agents for the Ondo State Governorship election, the Commission is pleased to publish the summary of submissions made by political parties,” Olumekun said.
Ondo State has 3,933 polling units and 222 collation centers, consisting of 203 ward centers, 18 Local Government centers, and the State collation center in Akure. Each party fielding candidates is expected to nominate 4,155 agents.
From the 18 participating parties, INEC expected a cumulative figure of 74,790 agents. However, only 24,148 were uploaded to the portal, comprising 22,689 polling, 1,249 ward, 196 Local Government, and 14 State collation agents.
“A detailed breakdown of the submissions has been uploaded to our website and social media platforms for public information,” Olumekun added.
The Ondo State governorship election is scheduled for November 16, 2024.
