1,168, 790 voters for Lagos East bye-elections — INEC

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Lagos State says a total of 1,168,790 voters will be participating in the Dec. 5 rescheduled Lagos East bye-elections.

The Resident Electoral Commissioner of INEC, Sam Olumekun, told our reporter in Lagos on Tuesday that the voters were those who possessed Permanent Voter Cards (PVC) in the senatorial district.

The INEC boss, however, said that the district has 1,343,448 registered voters spread across 71 wards, 1,928 polling units and 188 voting points.

Olumekun added that 280,363 registered voters from Kosofe state constituency II would participate in the Lagos State House of Assembly’s bye-election holding the same day.

According to him, not all the registered voters are in possession of PVCs to participate in the elections.

The INEC boss said that the registered voters in the Lagos East Senatorial District spread across the five local government areas comprising Somolu, Kosofe, Ibeju-Lekki, Ikorodu and Epe.

He said that the registered voters for the Kosofe Constituency II bye-election were spread across the six wards located in Ketu-Alapere, Ikosi/Ketu, Isheri/Olowo-Ora, Agboyi I, Agboyi II and Odo-Ogun/Ajegunle.

Olumekun said that the commission had improved the training of electoral personnel and assured that the elections would be free, fair and credible.

He added that the commission had also been addressing some of the intractable challenges regarding functionality of new technological innovations for elections such as Smart Card Readers and Z-Pad.

The INEC boss said that the electoral umpire has been able to collate, transmit and declare recent election results more accurately and speedily, resulting in better outcome.

According to him, the latest technology, Z pad, which was introduced and used in recent elections, is designed to transfer results directly from the polling units to INEC portal.

He said that the picture of the result would be taken by the Presiding officers with the Z-pad from each polling unit and later transferred to the portal to further enhance the integrity of the poll.

The resident electoral commissioner said that the innovation would be employed in the conduct of the Lagos East bye -elections.

It was reported that candidates from 12 political parties will be contesting in the forthcoming Lagos East Senatorial bye-election.

Eight candidates from various political parties will also be contesting the Kosofe Constituency II, Lagos State House of Assembly bye-election.

The contestants for the senatorial elections are: Muyiwa Adebanjo, Action Alliance (AA); Ms Mercy Adeoye, African Action Congress (AAC) and John Kome, African Democratic Congress (ADC).

Others are: Adebowale Ogunlaru, Action Democratic Party (ADP); Adetokunbo Abiru, All Progressives Congress (APC); Olusola Babatope, Allied Peoples Movement (APM); Mrs Florence Trautman, Labour Party (LP) and Ms Adijat Lawal, New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP).

The rest are: Babatunde Gbadamosi, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP); Olakunle Adisa, National Rescue Movement (NRM); Saheed Aluko, Social Democratic Party (SDP) and Taiwo Temitope, Young Progressive Party (YPP).

The eight contestants for the Kosofe Constituency II bye-election are: John Akerele, AA; Sadiq Olawale, AAC; Wasiu Saheed, APC; Adekunle Oladapo, LP; Muyideen Agoro, NNPP; Ademorin Adelaja, NRM; Sikiru Alebiosu, PDP and Mrs Mary Abojeh, ADC.

The two bye-elections, earlier fixed for Oct. 31, was rescheduled for Dec. 5. because of the October EndSARS protests.

It became necessary following the demise of the former occupants who were both members of the ruling APC.