By Josephine Oguntoyinbo

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Thirteen political parties participating in the forthcoming October 10 governorship election in Ondo state have received the voters register from the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC in Akure.
Presenting the electronic format register to the parties, INEC National Commissioner in charge of Ondo, Ogun and Lagos states, Dr Adekunle Ogunmola expressed the electoral body’s readiness for the conduct of a credible poll in Ondo State.
Ogunmola informed representatives of political parties present at the event that INEC would remain independent, unbiased and transparent in the conduct of the poll.
Earlier, INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC in the state, Ambassador Rufus Akeju explained that the COVID -19 pandemic almost truncated preparations towards the October 10 governorship poll.
This Akeju said made the commission came up with a strategy tagged “Policy on conducting elections in the context of COVID -19 pandemic” to mitigate the challenges of continuous voters registration suspension, issuance of permanent voter cards, transfer of voters registration and replacement of lost PVCs.
the REC informed the gathering that one million, four hundred and seventy eight thousand, four hundred and sixty permanent voter cards have so far been distributed, while three hundred and seventy two thousand eight hundred and eighty eight cards are yet to be collected
He added that the commission would open the window for another continuous voters registration once the trend of COVID-19 subsides.
The commission took the political parties through enlightenment on the voters register and voters breakdown analysis by two resource persons.
Political parties represented at the presentation include, A.A, AAC, Accord, ADP, APC, APM, APP, labour Party, NNPP, NRM, PDP, PRP AND ZLP.