476,870 eligible to vote in EKITI, says INEC

A total of 476,870 voters are expected to file out today to elect the governor of Ekiti State for the next four years.

The figure represents those who collected their Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs),the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said yesterday.

Spokesman for INEC in the state, Mr. Taiwo Gbadegesin, said only those with the PVCs will be allowed to vote today.

Gbadegesin said that only 476,870 of the 732,166 cards issued for voters in the state were collected by their owners.

He said that the response to the collection of the cards was not encouraging enough. He said registration area centres (RACs) had been created by the commission to facilitate access to polling centres by electoral officers.

“RACs were put in place to decongest election offices at the local governments. Rather than the officials of the Commission moving from the local governments towards the polling stations on election day, the RACs were created to ease administrative tasks and take the burden away from the councils,” he said.

“Registration Area Centres are equal to wards. It is a new dimension to logistics of operations, especially on the day of election, to ensure that INEC officials get to the polling centres on time for accreditation and voting. Instead of moving from local government area offices, you move from RACs.

“By our estimation, the farthest location of polling stations to an RAC should not be more than 45 minutes. When the election officials move from RACs, they get to polling centres early enough. This is a departure from earlier practice.”

Six National Commissioners (NECs) and 10 Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) have been deployed to the state to support officials of the Commission on ground. http://thenationonlineng.net/new/476870-eligible-vote-says-inec/