The Chairman of the Cross River State Independent Electoral Commission (CROSIEC), Dr. Ekong Boco, has announced that 10 political parties will take part in the local government elections scheduled for Saturday.
Speaking on Thursday in Calabar during the distribution of sensitive election materials to all 18 local government areas, Boco dismissed rumours suggesting that the materials had already been dispatched before the official commencement.
He displayed the ballot papers before beginning the process and appealed to all political parties to continue cooperating with the commission until the election is successfully concluded.
According to him, “We will be using 3,281 polling units as approved by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), with 9,843 ad-hoc staff, 460 supervisors, 18 returning officers, and 198 collation officers.”
The CROSIEC chairman added that all ad-hoc staff, including returning and ward collation officers, underwent training from October 25 to 27, and expressed confidence that they would perform their duties professionally.
“We want the public to see that the process is transparent and that the commission maintains integrity,” he emphasized.
Boco also disclosed that voting will be conducted manually, starting at 8 a.m. and ending at 2 p.m.
In his remarks, the State Chairman of the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC), Effiom Edet, said the council had closely monitored the commission’s preparations and was confident that the election would be free, fair, and credible.
“We have not observed any attempt to pre-sign results for any political party, and we assure the public that such malpractice will not occur,” he stated.
Meanwhile, the state government has declared Friday a public holiday to allow adequate preparation for the elections, according to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
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