By Jubril Bada

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) yesterday declared that the total number of registered voters in Ondo State is 2,047,598.

The INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), in the state Dr.Rufus Akeju, disclosed this while briefing newsmen in his office.

He explained that 1,531,974 Permanent Voters’ Cards have been distributed out of 1,843,516 PVC received as at October 31 this year, saying that 313,200 PVCs are yet to be collected.

The state, he posited has 3933 polling units with 203 registration areas and 18 collation centres for the forthcoming elections.

According to him, the sensitive and non-sensitive election materials so far collected by the commission in the state include 3933 Bimodal Verification Accreditation System (BVAS), 5329 ballot boxes, 23,598 sleeping mats, 4130 gums and 2224 voting cubicles.

The INEC REC who maintained that the commission is working assiduously in ensuring that the activities ahead of the general elections are carried out as scheduled will have BVAS evaluation training, meeting with election stakeholders, determination of security architectures for the state through meetings with Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election security, (ICCES) and identification of flash-points and difficult terrains.

He disclosed that evaluation of political parties’ billboards, stands; platforms and rallies are ongoing to track political parties’ finances.

He said “the distribution of the PVC is ongoing in order to allow all registrants from 2011 till date to collect their PVCs before the 2023 general elections.

“A public portal has been opened for interested and qualified members of the public to apply for Ad-hoc position.

“Result Viewing Portal had been very effective in giving accessibility to Nigerians and indeed the whole world to view the result of the election at the comfort of their home online.

“Ad-hoc recruitment portal is another innovation with which the Commission had been recruiting Ad-hoc personnel online.

“Collation Support Result Verification System is another innovation of the Commission,”