INEC to Hold Mock Elections in 12 States on Saturday
The Independent National Electoral Commission has announced plans to hold mock elections in 12 states before the presidential elections scheduled for March 28 in order to ensure the effectiveness of the Permanent Voters’ Card Reader Machines,.
According to the Ondo State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Segun Agbaje, the mock elections will be held on Saturday, March 7, in 12 states selected from all the geopolitical zones in the country, including Lagos state.
He said: “At the mock elections, the commission would make use of the PVCs and card readers alone. It is to be displaced to the people and also look at how effective the machines will work on the election day.
“There is no going back on the usage of PVCs. The Card readers if fully charged, can work up to 10 to 12 hours and we have back up machines for each unit and fully charged batteries.
“12 states have been selected for the mock elections and in South West, the mock elections will be conducted in Lagos and Ekiti States. This is to test the effectiveness of the machines before general elections”.
Agbaje, who was speaking at the signing of a Peace accord by political parties in Akure on Tuesday also disclosed that 78.2 percent of the PVCs had been collected so far in Ondo state and that over 14,000 ad hoc staff had been trained for the polls nationwide.
“A committee called Inter agency Cooperative Committee under the leadership of the police Commissioner and REC has been set up. It comprises of security operatives and INEC officers. We have been meeting on several times and we will continue to meet until election day.
“We have Registration Area Centres in all the collation centres in the 207 wards in the state. That is where our ad hoc staff and security operatives will be a day before the elections. We are expecting them to move from that area to the polling unit. We are targeting 98 percent commencement time in the poll.”
