1.9 million people to determine fate of president, senators, others

By Ozioruva Aliu

BENIN CITY – BARELY one week to the Presidential and National Assembly elections, the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) for Edo State, Hon. Obo Effanga, yesterday said 96 polling stations out of a total 4,519 polling units in the would have more than one BVAS (Bimodal Voters Accreditation System) machine because of the high volume of voters registered in the units.

   Besides, he said one million, nine hundred and ninety six thousand and eighty eight persons have collected their Permanent Voter Cards, representing 79.8 percent of the total voters and are expected to participate in the elections.

   Briefing newsmen on the preparedness of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) ahead of the forthcoming general elections in the country, Effanga assured that those that have been migrated from their original polling units to others to reduce the voting population would not be a problem because most of those affected were within trekkable distances from their original places.

   He said “The total number of registered voters in Edo state going into this election is two million five hundred and one thousand and eighty one persons that are registered to vote in Edo State.

  “However, the total number of PVCs collected is one million, nine hundred and ninety six thousand and eighty eight, which means that 79.8 percent of those who are registered in Edo State, their cards are right with them. 

“So if we want to have an election, we don’t expect to have more than this number of people as votes”, Effanga said.

  He said a large number of those who registered in 2021-2022 about 75 percent of them have since collected their PVCs.

While explaining that 4,519 polling units are in the 18 local government areas of the state, he said 850 are affected by voter migrations.

   He warned those who have no voter cards to stay clear of the polling units on the day of election.