•INEC conducts 22 elections, tinkers with guidelines
•Accreditation and voting hold from 8am to 2pm
Two-term Senate President David Mark will today know if he will return to the Senate to continue with his fifth term representing Benue South District of the state on the banner of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Or he will cede his prestigious Senate seat to the young challenger, Daniel Onjeh of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
So also is Senator Athan Achonu of Imo North Senatorial District, aiming to stop Hon Benjamin Uwajumogu of APC in Imo State.
The duo will be running in two of the 22 National Assembly and state assembly re-run elections to be conducted by Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) today, across eight states – Benue, Kaduna, Plateau, Niger, Nasarawa, Kogi, Taraba and Imo.
Apart from Benue South and Imo North, senatorial re-run polls will be held in Kogi East and Kogi Central.
The remaining 18 re-run elections consist of three Houses of Representatives and 15 states assembly polls
The Federal Constituency elections will hold in Okene/Ogori Magongo Federal Constituency of Kogi State; Lafia/Obi Federal Constituency of Nasarawa State and Kurmi/Sardauna Federal Constituency of Taraba State.
And the 15 State Constituency elections will be conducted across Imo, Kaduna, Kogi, Plateau, Niger and Taraba states. Other are Isiala Mbano, Oru East, and Owerri West all in Imo State; Lere West in Kaduna State; Ofu, Ankpa 1, Idah, Dekina 1 and Dekina II (Okura) in Kogi State; Suleja in Niger State; Langtang South, Pankshin South and Pankshin North in Plateau State; as well as Ardo Kola and Mbamga in Taraba State.
In Benue South, Mark will face Onjeh of APC, the man who stopped him at the Court of Appeal, among other opponents.
In Imo North, Achonu, popularly called the one-arm Senator, will also aim to stop Uwajumogu of APC, who got his election nullified.
In Kogi East, Senator Abdul Abdulahi of APC whose election was nullified to pave way for the re-run was barred from recontesting, leaving the race open for Attai Aidoko (PDP) and Ibrahim Itodo (LP), among others.
With Senator Muhammed Salami Ohiare (APC) also barred in Kogi Central, Alhaji Ahmed Ogembe of PDP will be running against Dr. Moses Wokili of Social Democratic Party (SDP) and Kabiru Atta of the Labour Party (LP), among others.
INEC distributes sensitive materials
Already, INEC has distributed both sensitive and non-sensitive materials to the states where the rerun would hold.
In today’s elections, INEC said voters would undergo simultaneous accreditation and voting, a departure from the past.
The new system which was introduced during the supplementary governorship election in Bayelsa State entails that both accreditation and voting would take place side by side.
In the past, part of INEC’s electoral guidelines was that accreditation would be done separately and concluded within a specific period after which voting would commence.
While the system was time-consuming, it also disenfranchised many elderly and ill persons who could not withstand the rigour of having to wait for hours at the polling unit after accreditation, pending when voting would commence.
Secretary to the Commission, Mrs Augusta Ogakwu said in line with the new procedure, voting at re-run elections shall commence at 8.00 am and close at 2.00 pm.
To use card readers
As to whether the commission would discard the use of smart card readers, Director, Voter Education, Publicity, Civil Society and Gender Liaison, Oluwole Osaze-Uzi said the commission would continue to use the technology until there is a legislation stopping its usage.
“We will continue to use the card reader for our elections. It is only meant to enhance the process and not to displace or supplant the manual register. For now, there is no legislation that prohibits it, until probably when there is an electoral reform and a contrary legislation is made about its usage. The court has also not banned its usage, so we will continue to use it for the process of authentication of voter details,” he said.
In Taraba State where rerun elections would be conducted into the Kurmi/Gashaka/Sardauna federal constituency as well as Mbamga and Ardo Kola state constituencies, INEC Administrative Secretary in the state, Alhaji Mohammed Umar said the commission was ready for the election and had distributed non-sensitive and sensitive materials.
According to him, only registered voters with their Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) would vote in the election.
-Vanguard