By Adekola Afolabi

Less than 100 days to the conduct of the October 10 governorship poll in Ondo state, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has warned political gladiators to play the game according to the rules.
The Ondo State Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Ambassador Rufus Akeju, while speaking shortly after the publication of the Notice of Poll at the INEC office in Akure revealed that the conduct of political party primaries has been fixed to hold between Thursday, July 2, and Saturday July 25, 2020.
The commission equally okayed July 13, 2020 for the commencement of political campaigns, saying anything before this date is jumping the gun and against Electoral Laws.
Akeju explained that the publication of the Notice of Election was in line with the Electoral laws and guidelines for the conduct of the election, adding that the notice could also be seen in all the 18 local government areas of the state.
He said the. commission is ready to conduct credible, free, fair and successful gubernatorial election and charged political actors and gladiators to live up to expectations, play the game according to the dictate of the extant laws, regulations and guidelines of their political parties to promote democratic values.
“They should endeavour at all times to be guided by the ethics of democratic norms and ensure they order their conduct to sustain and build the integrity of the electoral process”, the REC added.
Amb. Akeju who noted that the novel COVID-19 pandemic has affected parts of their preparations, said the commission could not accommodate registration of new voters ahead of the October 10 poll because of the coronavirus.
” It is extremely important for me to inform you that the Commission has suspended the Continuous Voters Registration exercise and the implication is that, the window of opportunity for new registrants to register, distribution of Permanent Voter Cards, transfer of registration and replacement of lost or defaced PVCs has been shut for the meantime owing to the ravaging pandemic”, he stressed.
According to him, number of registered voters in the state remained 1, 822, 346; while number of PVCs collected is 1, 478, 460, just as number of uncollected PVCs stands at 372, 888.
The REC further said, in carrying out its constitutional responsibility, INEC has de-registered 74 political parties and now left with 18 subsisting political parties in the political space of the country.