Dep Gov Tasks INEC On Credible Polls

The Deputy Governor of Cross River State, Prof. Ivara Ejemot Esu, has called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to ensure that all the observed issues that affected the Presidential and National Assembly Elections were properly addressed before the Governorship and State House of Assembly Elections.
Professor Esu stated this at the stakeholders meeting with the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) held at State INEC Office Calabar.
Professor Esu said, the Stakeholders’ meeting was to assess the outcome of the Presidential and National Assembly Elections in preparations for the Saturday March 9, State Governorship and House of Assembly Elections.
According to the Deputy Governor, some of the issues were; failure of card readers, late arrival of voting materials, shortage of security officers in some areas, alleged vote buying and wrong sorting of material meant for another area.
He charged INEC to deploy competent staff for the forthcoming election to all polling units across the state for successful and credible elections.
He also advised the commission to deploy adequate security personnel to all the polling units to prevent ballot snatching and vote buying.
In his opening remarks, the State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Dr Frankland Briyai intimated that, the meeting was necessitated by the various complaints raised by stakeholders in the last presidential elections with a view to addressing them during the Saturday March 9, 2019 elections. He stated that, INEC will ensure that the best hands will be employed to handle the process, while all ad-hoc staff will be retrained.
Dr Briyai encouraged legible voters to turn out en-masse and vote for the candidate of their choice as their votes will count, while promising to provide a level playing ground for all political parties to participate.
The resident electoral commissioner therefore warned those who are in the habit of ballot box snatching to desist from the act, as it will amount to zero votes in that polling unit or ward.
There were remarks, interactions, questions and answers by stakeholders which focused on preparations for the governorship and state house of assembly elections.

Friday Nwagbara, Calabar