The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says it has recorded over 87 per cent preparedness for the forthcoming Enugu North Senatorial District by-election in Enugu State.

The commission’s Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in Enugu State, Chukwuemeka Chukwu, disclosed this on Wednesday.

The INEC scheduled June 20 for the by-election, while it announced and published notice and timetable for the exercise on May 21.

Mr Chukwu said that the non-sensitive materials had been sorted and ready to be moved to the commission’s six local government area offices that make-up the senatorial district.

“We are sending the non-sensitive materials today (June 3) to our council area offices involved, and by Thursday (June 4), the non-sensitive materials will be further moved to INEC’s Registration Area Centres (RACs),” he said.

The REC further stated that the commission had fully configured and power-charged all the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) devices to ensure smooth conduct of the by-election.

He also said that INEC had concluded all critical stakeholders’ engagements at the levels of the state, senatorial and six local government areas.

Mr Chukwu stated that the robust engagements witnessed a massive turnout of stakeholders, with most of them asking relevant questions about the by-election and answers provided by the commission’s top officials.

According to him, four political parties will be fielding candidates for the by-election.

The REC explained that the political parties were those whose primary elections were monitored by INEC officials, with an official report written to the commission’s headquarters on the exercise.

“Why I will not mention the political parties yet is that we are waiting for our headquarters’ approval of the report written on the parties’ primaries conducted,” he said.

The REC said that the commission would be conducting training for various levels of officials for the by-election on Friday.

Mr Chukwu said that within days, the commission would be engaging with the police and other security agencies to ensure protection of INEC officials and ad-hoc staff as well as sensitive/non-sensitive materials and voters.

(NAN)