In a couple of days, the electorate in Ondo State will be heading to the poll to cast votes for their preferred governorship candidate, who will be saddled with the responsibility of steering the ship of the state in the next four years.

ACCORDING  to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), 17 political parties will be participating in the election. Among the candidates jostling for the Alagbaka governor’s Office is the incumbent Governor of the state, Hon Lucky Orimisan Aiyedatiwa, contesting as the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC); Hon. Agboola Alfred Ajayi, the former Deputy Governor of the State is the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) flagbearer; Chief Sola Ebiseni is the standard bearer of Labour Party (LP), while Mr Olugbenga Edema is  the candidate of New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), alongside 13 other candidates.

AHEAD  of the gubernatorial poll, INEC started its preparations with the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) on May 27 this year and concluded it on June 9, 2024.

DURING  the exercise, 58,708 new voters were registered. 3,132 voters transferred their voters’ cards to Ondo State, and 123 voters transferred their voters’ cards out of the state, while a total of 295,603 voters are  yet to collect their PVCs.

UPON  completion of the CVR and clean-up exercise, the total number of registered voters in Ondo State stands at 2,053,061.

THE  breakdown is as follows: Male – 1,034,006 (50.36)percent; Female – 1,019,055 (49.64)percent; youth – 726,944  (35.41%); middle age – 721,982 (35.17%); elderly – 441,516 (21.51%); old – 162,619 (7.92%); PWD – 1,782 ( 0.09%).

ELECTIONS  remain the only legal means of changing the government and the most fundamental principle defining credible elections is that they must reflect the free expression of the will of the people. To achieve this, elections should be transparent, inclusive, and trusted by voters and those elected. As Ondo residents prepare for the much-anticipated election, all eyes are on the electoral umpire because the coming election will serve as another litmus test of its preparedness and ability to conduct credible elections.

INDEED, a credible election must reflect democratic principles of universal voting rights and political equality as reflected in the free expression of the will of the people, as well as professional, impartial and transparent preparation and administration of the election throughout the electoral cycle, which includes pre-election, election day administration, and post-election. While the responsibility of conducting elections may lie on the election management body, The Hope appeals to critical stakeholders like security agencies and the various political parties to play their roles by ensuring the process is transparent and peaceful.

TO  ensure that personnel deployed  on election day are well prepared, INEC has embarked on the training of all the officers who will be involved, as well as enlightenment of journalists and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) on the electoral process, and training of security agents under the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES), to ensure a secure environment for all election stakeholders.

IN  addition, political parties participating in the forthcoming Ondo State governorship election have signed a Peace Accord coordinated by the National Peace Committee and INEC, aimed at securing a peaceful election process.

WHILE  commending candidates and their supporters in the coming Governorship election in the State for peaceful campaigns, The Hope urges them to sustain the tempo, so that we don’t have a repeat of some ugly past incidents.

THE  HOPE  notes that Nigeria’s elections have always been marred by electoral malpractices and violence, thereby short-circuiting the citizens’ will and mandate expressed during polls, as most election hitches come from politicians.  We, therefore, appeal to political parties, this time around, to rein in their supporters and educate them to desist from violence. They should enlighten their supporters against electoral offences that manifest in all forms of malpractices, such as rigging, thuggery, vote buying, multiple voting, and which often culminate in violence.

FOR  the sake of posterity, INEC should prove its mettle as an unbiased umpire,  uphold the tenets of integrity, and conduct the Ondo State governorship election with all fairness, to erase past allegations against the commission. The electoral body must take steps in the management of election security to ensure that voters, candidates, poll workers, observers, and other actors involved in the election are not hamstrung or even harmed during the process, while sensitive election materials are kept secured and accounted for.

THIS will build the confidence of the citizens in the process and increase participation. They should ensure that their offices are well equipped, and machines adequately supplied to the polling units, especially the card readers should be tested before election day to avoid  hitches experienced in the past.

WE equally urge INEC to create more voting centres, specifically in new residential areas so that eligible voters will not be disenfranchised, even as we urge them to work on e-voting.

AS  we prepare for the election, The Hope appeals to the electorate to shun any act of vote selling and  violence before, during, and after the election and remember that the election is not a do-or-die affair, as it is popularly assumed that no ambition of any candidate is worth the life of anyone.