Osun Election: INEC Presents Voters’ Register to Political Parties

About 38 political parties have received soft copies of voters’ register for the September 22 Osun governorship election from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Thursday.

The Resident Electoral Commissioner in Osun, Mr Segun Agbaje, presented the register to the representatives of political parties at the INEC office in Osogbo.

The commissioner claimed that some members of some of the political parties have approached him individually to get the register, but he had insisted that the document would be distributed together.

He said the presentation of the register was in line with INEC’s guidelines, urging the political parties to call the commission’s attention to any wrong they discovered after going through the document.

Agbaje who stated that the commission will be as neutral as possible during the election, asked that any erring officer, including himself to the commission’s headquarters in Abuja.

Agbaje gave the parties the details of the efforts INEC had made in the compilation of the register in order to ensure a successful election in the state.

The resident electoral commissioner appealed to the representatives of the political parties to inform the electorate about the importance of Permanent Voter Cards during the election.

“As we speak, majority of the non-sensitive materials that would be used for the conduct of the election have been received from INEC headquarters, Abuja, and distributed to INEC offices across the state.

“Furthermore, a total of 1,152,751 PVCs have been collected by their owners out of 1,668,524 received in the state, leaving a balance of 515,773 as at August 17.

“It is important for you to help us to inform the people on the need to collect their PVCs during your campaigns and rallies, because without PVC, nobody would be allowed to vote.” he said.

According to the INEC National Commissioner in charge of Oyo, Osun and Ekiti, Mr Adedeji Shoyebi, the presentation was important to ensure that the parties identified and fish out registered voters who are either underage or are foreigners.

He added that out of the 1.6 million PVCs produced for registered voters in the state, 500,000 are yet to be collected.

Shoyebi stated that the commission will not condole any form of electoral violence or vote buying.

He, however, advised the political parties to call on the electorate yet to collect their PVCs to do so, urging them to also sensitise their members, especially the youths, to eschew violence during the election.