INEC Chairman Decries Monetised Politics, Says Votes Will Count In Ekiti

National Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, yesterday, described monetised politics as inimical for election, and it’s anti-democratic.

Yakubu assured that every vote of Ekiti electorate will count in the June 18 governorship election in the state, saying the commission will stand by the obligatory mission of ensuring that no extraneous interferences are allowed to affect the credibility of the poll adversely.

The INEC boss said this during an interface with the Ekiti State Council of Traditional Rulers in respect of the June 18 governorship election in the state.

His words: “I want to appeal to all voters in Ekiti that their votes will count. We would still return to interact with other critical stakeholders on how to have a peaceful election in Ekiti. The atmosphere now for the conduct of the 2022 election is so calm, unlike what we had in 2018.

“I asked myself what has changed, I was told the royal fathers had been working hard to ensure that the situation is calm and I could see it is very calm.

“In this election, there will be two ballot boxes in Ekiti East constituency 1, because they will elect their assembly representative together with the governor. There will be 16 political parties for the governorship election, but only two for the bye-election in Ekiti East.

“The number of registered voters in Ekiti is 989, 202. We expect the stake to go higher because people are still collecting their PVCs. Let me say that we are ready for the election. Our staff are being trained.

“The BVAS had been introduced and with the Smart Card Readers had been fully retired. As far as technology is concerned, there will be a seamless and fantastic election in Ekiti. There was a mock election here on Monday across the state and the machine worked 100 percent.

“Where the machine is unable to get the fingerprints, we will get the facial appearance of the voter. There won’t be an incidence form, we have abolished the incidence form as well. INEC is not a political party. We don’t have a candidate and all we want is leaving who leads Ekiti in the hands of the citizens and that we shall achieve.”

In his remarks, Oba Gabriel Adejumo, praised INEC for the voter registration exercise it had undertaken in the state, saying this would help in widening citizens’ participation in the exercise.