Between 300 and 400 ad hoc staff are to be recruited by the Ondo State Independent Electoral Commission (ODIEC) in addition to the commission’s staff to prosecute the December 1, local government elections in the state.
The ODIEC chairman, Professor Yomi Dinakin, who gave the figure however explained that the number of ad hoc staff could further be determined by the number of polling units in the 18 local government areas across the state.
He said that the commission had written to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), to release its documents listing the number of polling units and list of political parties in the state.
His words: “We are going to work on the figure given to us by INEC and we are going to disseminate the information to the stakeholders.
“No electoral body has the required number of staff for the conduct of elections.
“We have our permanent staff at the headquarters and in all our area offices. We have adequate staff but for the conduct of the elections, it is normal and it is a usual practice to employ ad-hoc staff that we will train to assist in the process.
“INEC for instance is using National Youth Service Corps members and that usually constitutes the bulk of those they use as ad-hoc, apart from professors and others,” he said.
He said that the political parties participating in the elections will also nominate their polling agents to adequately monitor everything on the day of the elections.
According to him, there will also be observers that will monitor the smooth conduct of the elections. He therefore called on voters to show interest in the election and participate actively.
He said they should all work together to achieve success while the political parties should also see the election as a contest.
“Let us go to our polling booths with only our PVCs,” he counseled.