As the people of Ekiti state gets set to elect a successor to the outgoing Governor Kayode Fayemi, the Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC) National Chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, has assured voters that it is only their votes that would determine who their next governor will be on June 18
Professor Yakubu, who gave assurance on Tuesday, during an interface with the Ekiti State Council of Traditional Rulers in respect of the June 18 governorship election in the state, also warned that monetized politics would be inimical for election and anti-democratic.
Yakubu assured that the commission will stand by the obligatory mission of ensuring that no extraneous interferences are allowed to affect the credibility of the poll adversely.
The INEC boss disclosed that a total of 989,202 voters had been registered in Ekiti, noting that over 740,000 had procured their Permanent Voter Cards(PVCs).
The INEC boss revealed that the commission will conduct the governorship poll alongside the botched Ekiti State Assembly bye-election in Ekiti East Constituency 1.
“I want to appeal to all voters in Ekiti that their votes will count. We would still return to interact with other critical stakeholders on how to have peaceful election in Ekiti. The atmosphere now for the conduct of the 2022 election is so calm, unlike what we had in 2018.
“In this election, there will be two ballot boxes in Ekiti East constituency 1, because they will elect their assembly representative together with the governor. There will be 16 political parties for the governorship election, but only two for the bye-election in Ekiti East
“The BVAS had been introduced and with this, smart card readers had been fully retired. As far as technology is concerned, there will be seamless and fantastic election in Ekiti. There was a mock election here on Monday across the state and the machine worked 100 percent.
“Where the machine is unable to get the fingerprints, we will get the facial appearance of the voter. There won’t be incidence form, we have abolished incidence form as well. INEC is not the political party. We don’t have a candidate and all we want is leaving who leads Ekiti in the hands of the citizens and that we shall achieve,” he assured
The Chairman, Ekiti State Council of Traditional Rulers, Oba Gabriel Adejumo, expressed satisfaction with INEC’s conduct of the voting registration exercise in the state, saying this would help in widening citizens’ participation in the exercise.
