INEC Starts Training 1,265,227 Staff for 2023 Elections

This Day] Abuja -- Training has begun for the 1,265,227 staff who will be conducting the forthcoming elections.

Festus Okoye is the INEC National Commissioner for Information and Voter Education Committee. He made this disclosure in Lagos, Nigeria, at the commission's Voter Education and publicity Training on Strategic Communications.

He stated that there was no doubt that the training was useful, given the assurances made by Prof. Mahmood Yokubu, the Chairman of the commission that the commission was well-equipped to organize free, fair and transparent elections that are inclusive, transparent, verifiable, transparent, and inclusive.

Okoye stated that it was important in light of the new Electoral Legal Framework, which will allow for the conduct and administration of elections. He also mentioned the commitment of the commission to use technology in the electoral process.

He pointed out that as heads of departments and public relations officers, it was their responsibility advise Resident Electoral Commissioners and Electoral Officers on how to communicate the commission's policies, technological innovations, and issues in the conduct and conduct of elections.

He stated that Nigerians would elect a president on February 25, 2023 and 109 senators and 360 representatives to the House of Representatives. There will also be 28 governors and 993 members of state assemblies. Okoye stated that 93,469,000.008 registered voters are expected participate in the election.

He stated that the 2023 general election would be technology-driven. The commission will deploy the Bimodal Voter Acreditation System (BVAS), to the 176 846 polling units throughout the federation. Redundancies will also be deployed to the 8,809 registration areas as well as the 774 local government area of Nigeria. The full complement of BVAS used in the election has been tested by the commission and is currently being configured for the election.

Okoye explained that the use BVAS to verify and authenticate voters was a mandatory provision in Section 47(2) of Electoral Act. Every registered voter must go through the accreditation process.

He stated that the commission would also upload results at the polling unit level (Form EC8A), and accreditation data to the INEC Result Viewing Portal. This was also a mandatory provision under section 50, 60, and 64 of the Electoral Act 20202.

Okoye stated that the commission will recruit 707 384 presiding and assistant presiding officer, 17, 685 supervisory preside officers, 9,620 collation/returning officer, and 530,538 security officers for the polling unit, totalling 1,265,227.

All of these staff are currently being trained and will be training others in the next few days.

He stated that all sensitive and non-sensitive materials necessary for the conduct 2023 general elections are being moved to their respective locations, while security is being bolstered in the state and local governments offices of the commission. All materials needed for the election will be in place at the least one week before the election.

Okoye stated that in order to perform optimally and effectively as heads of departments or public affairs officers, whose mandate it is to interface between the commission's critical stakeholders at the state-level and local governments, there are certain minimums that must be met.