At least 2,249,780 voters who have collected their Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) in Edo will today elect the state’s next governor, referred to as the “Heartbeat of the Nation.”
According to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), this number represents 85.57 percent of the 2,629,025 registered voters in the state with 379,245 uncollected PVCs. Comparatively, in the last governorship election in the state, of the 2,210,534 registered voters in 2020, only 557,443 turned up for accreditation on election day, out of which 550,242 voted.
With the atmosphere in the state charged with the rhetoric of violence and pockets of violence in the buildup to the election, the police said they had deployed 35,000 personnel, while the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) announced the deployment of 6,433 personnel, even as the military announced that it had received a presidential mandate to ensure a free and fair poll. The police had announced a similar figure for the 2020 governorship election in the state.
The police and other security agencies also promised neutrality and decisive actions against any act capable of jeopardising the credibility of the process. But despite these, the atmosphere has remained tense.
On Thursday, the electoral umpire also commenced the distribution of sensitive materials for the election, which included 5,000 Bimodal Voter Accreditation Systems (BVAS).
It said this would ensure a smooth election across the 4,519 polling units and 211 collation centers, including 192 wards, 18 local government collation centers, and the state collation center in Benin City, the state capital. It also said 18,076 ad-hoc staff would be deployed.
