INEC to deploy 400,000 corps members for polls

The Independent National Electoral Commission will hire about 40
per cent of its ad hoc workers for the February 16 and March 2
elections from members of the National Youth Service Corps, the
National Commissioner and Chairman of its Information and Voter
Education Committee, Festus Okoye, has stated.

Between 300,000 and 400,000 corps members would be needed for
the two elections out of 800,000 to one million workers to be
deployed in different polling booths during the exercise.

According to the INEC commissioner, the expectation is that the
corps members will serve as presiding officers in about 120,000
polling units and the estimated 30,000 voting points and
settlements.

He also stated that should there be any shortfall, the
commission would make use of students from federal tertiary
institutions.

Okoye spoke with newsmen in Abuja where he shed light on the
number of ad hoc employees to be deployed for the February and
March polls including the additional 30,000 voting points that
might be created by INEC.

He said, “There are 119,809 polling units in Nigeria and maybe
additional 30,000 voting points will be created. Each polling unit
and voting point will have not less than four ad hoc staff. We have
a total of 8,809 registration areas and each of them must have
collation officers.

“All the local governments and area councils must have collation
officers. INEC will conduct elections in 1,558 constituencies and
it requires between 750,000 and one million ad hoc workers. The
commission can only harvest around 40 per cent of its ad hoc staff
need from the corps members.”

Okoye explained that each of the polling units would be manned
by a presiding officer and three assistant presiding officers.

The national commissioner added, “Where voting points are
created, there will be at each voting point an APO (VP) and three
APOs appointed by the commission under the supervision of the
presiding officer. The presiding officer shall delegate the
responsibility of accreditation, preparing and issuing of ballot
papers to the assistant presiding officer (VP) in-charge of a
voting point.

“The commission will also deploy collation officers in all the
registration areas/wards throughout the federation as well as
supervisory presiding officers to all the registration areas/wards.
The commission will deploy registration area technical support
staff in all the registration areas/wards.

“The commission will also deploy collation officers in all the
local governments in the federation and appoint returning officers
for all the strands of election that will be conducted.”

According to Okoye, INEC does not create voting points based on
geography.

He said, “The voting points are created based on multiples of
500 and a maximum of 750 registered voters or as may otherwise be
determined by the commission. The determining factor in the
creation of voting points is the number of registered voters in a
particular polling unit and the need to make it easier for all
registered voters to cast their votes expeditiously.

“Voting points are not stand-alone polling units. Voting points
are appendages of the existing and main polling units. The APO (VP)
in charge of a voting point reports directly to the presiding
officer and hands over the votes harvested from the voting point to
the presiding officer after counting and recording in the
appropriate forms.”