The Edo State Independent Electoral Commission (EDSIEC) has reversed the restriction on movement during Saturday’s local government councils election.

James Oyomire, the chairman of EDSIEC, told journalists on Thursday in Benin that the decision was to ensure that residents do not face unnecessary hardship during the poll.

“We are not restricting movement any longer; we believe that those who will vote will vote whether we lock down the state or not, and those who will not, will not,” he said.

Mr Oyomire, however, appealed to the state residents to vote during the exercise.

The EDSIEC boss said non-sensitive materials had arrived in the 18 local government areas, while stakeholders were being expected for the loading of ballot paper to commence.

“The roads are bad, and if they do not leave on time, it may affect the timely start of the election process,” he said.

The chairman also said the commission deployed 9,548 ad hoc staff for the council election.

He said that 4519 of the staff presiding officers while 4519 were poll clerks.

Mr Oyomire said the ad hoc staff included 300 supervisory presiding officers supervising about 10 polling units.

He said others were 192 ward collation officers and 18 local government returning officers.

On the accreditation process, the chairman said it would be manual because the law that set up the commission only recognised manual accreditation.

“We can’t see BVAS because first, we do not have it and second, the law that establishes the commission only recognises manual accreditation.

“If we will have to use the new technology, then the law must be amended,” said the commission boss.

(NAN)