INEC Lists Six Parties For Saturday’s Kano Assembly By-Election

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has confirmed that six political parties will contest Saturday’s Kano State House of Assembly by-election in Dawakin Kudu Constituency.

The commission also announced plans to deploy 1,500 ad hoc staff to the 303 polling units in the constituency as preparations for the election gather pace, Naija News reports.

INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner in Kano, Abdu Zango, disclosed this on Tuesday after an Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES) meeting with heads of security agencies at the Kano State Police Command headquarters.

Zango said non-sensitive election materials had already been distributed, while sensitive materials were expected to arrive on Wednesday.

He assured residents that the commission was prepared to deliver a peaceful and credible election.

“Every election is a learning process. We did that before in Dawakin Kudu and it was free, fair, credible, peaceful. No issue whatsoever. We will do the same, even better,” Zango said.

The REC added that INEC and security agencies had put measures in place to ensure a peaceful, free and fair exercise.

Also speaking, Kano State Commissioner of Police, Ibrahim Adamu Bakori, said security personnel would be deployed to the constituency from Thursday.

“We are fully prepared and deployment will commence by Thursday. It is going to be peaceful, fair and free. We are ready to go. There is always improvement in every process, and definitely there is an improvement from what we have done before,” he said.

The by-election became necessary after the former occupant of the seat left the Kano State House of Assembly to take up a seat in the House of Representatives.

INEC had earlier put the number of registered voters in Dawakin Kudu Constituency at 162,445.

Out of that figure, 148,971 voters have collected their Permanent Voter Cards, representing a 91.7 per cent collection rate.