No fewer than 2.8 million voters will today decide who governs Anambra State for the next four years.
The governorship election is the first to be held under the new Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Joash Amupitan, who assumed office on October 23.
Many observers have said the election will be a proof of INEC ability to conduct a free and fair election and a test of its sincerity about electoral reforms.
INEC said a total of 2,802,790 registered voters were eligible to participate, including 140,370 newly registered voters across the state’s 326 wards.
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With about 98.8 per cent of Permanent Voter Cards collected, candidates of the major political parties – Prince Nicholas Ukachukwu (All Progressives Congress), Dr George Moghalu (Labour Party), John Nwosu (African Democratic Congress), Jude Ezenwafor (Peoples Democratic Party), and Sir Paul Chukwuma (Young Progressives Party) – are jostling to wrest power from the incumbent, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, who is seeking re-election.
The commission also indicated that 16 political parties fielded candidates for the governorship race, including two women.
INEC confirmed that all 5,718 polling units would open at 8.30am today, with 6,879 BVAS devices configured and backed up, and over 24,000 trained ad hoc staff ready to serve.
INEC officials began distributing sensitive and non-sensitive materials to all local government areas on Thursday.
The exercise, which took place at the Central Bank of Nigeria office in Awka, was supervised by the State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Dr Queen Awgu, under heavy security.
Awgu explained that key materials, including the BVAS, Forms EC8A, and Forms EC8B were being transported to registration area centres ahead of the poll.
“The idea is to ensure that the election starts as scheduled; that is the only way the process can go on without delay,” she added.
She urged residents to come out en masse to exercise their franchise, rather than staying at home under the assumption that their votes would not count or that their preferred candidate had already won.
Police restrict vehicular movement
On Friday, the Anambra State Police Command announced total restriction of vehicular movement in and out of the state during the election.
