In order to prepare for the state’s November 11 governorship election, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has scheduled a mock accreditation of voters on Saturday.

At the Kogi INEC Headquarters in Lokoja, during the official release of the voters’ register to the 18 competing political parties in the approaching governorship election, Mahmud Yakubu, the INEC national chairman, announced this.

Only nine polling units—three from each of the state’s three senatorial districts—would participate in the election, according to Mr. Yakubu, who was represented by a national commissioner named Sani Adam (SAN).

The chairman said that the same procedure would be carried out simultaneously in the states of Bayelsa and Imo, where the November 11 governorship election will also take place.

The INEC boss called on voters in the selected polling units to come out en masse to participate in the exercise, which he described as a litmus test to the real election.

He said the commission was well prepared for the governorship poll. He appealed to politicians and the electorate to abide by the rules of the game for a peaceful, credible and successful conduct of the election.

Mr Yakubu said the total number of registered voters in Kogi for the election is 1,932,654.

“A copy of the register of voters in PDF will be issued to all the political parties contesting the election.

“The commission will deploy the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) in all the 3,508 polling units in Kogi for the election.

“Already, we have trained technical support staff that will be deployed to all the Registration Areas (RAs) and the local Governments to provide technical support for BVAS,” he said.

Responding, the state IPAC chairman, Ukwenge Musa, commended INEC for its preparations and readiness for the governorship election.

(NAN)