The Independent National Electoral Commission said it was prepared to conduct a peaceful, credible, and transparent bye-election in Ganye Constituency of Adamawa State.

The state Resident Electoral Commissioner, Mohammed Nura, gave the assurance during a stakeholders’ meeting held on Wednesday in Yola.

He said the commission would deploy Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) devices and adequate security personnel to ensure a smooth conduct of the election.

Mr Nura said the bye-election, scheduled for August 16, followed the death of a member representing the constituency in the State House of Assembly.

He stated that logistics and security were top priorities for the commission in ensuring a hitch-free electoral process.

He said that INEC would deploy 198 BVAS machines, one per polling unit, with backup devices and trained Registration Area Technicians (RATECHs) to provide technical support.

“The constituency comprises 10 registration areas (wards), 198 polling units, and 100,675 registered voters, of which 88,963 have collected their permanent voter cards (PVCs). A total of 1,425 personnel would be deployed for the exercise, including 792 polling officials and 514 security personnel,” he said.

Mr Nura said the INEC had already held consultations with the Adamawa State police command, State Security Service (SSS), and Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) to develop a robust security arrangement for the election.

According to him, training for supervisory presiding officers was conducted on August 1 and 2, while training for other ad-hoc staff will be held from August 8 to 10.

He further confirmed that all political parties participating in the election held their primaries peacefully between July 17 and 21.

According to him, non-sensitive election materials have been received, and logistics for deployment were already in place.

Mr Nura appealed to political parties, security agencies, and the public to support INEC in delivering a credible exercise.

The REC noted that INEC had announced the resumption of the continuous voter registration (CVR) nationwide.

“The online pre-registration will commence on August 18, while physical registration will begin on August 25. The exercise will run from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., Mondays to Fridays, at INEC offices and designated centres nationwide,” Mr Nura added.

(NAN)