The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has given a pass mark on the conduct of Saturday’s Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Area Councils election.

Yahaya Bello, the INEC FCT Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) said in Abuja that the poll commenced early in most polling units in the territory.

“It is our collective gratitude to that Almighty God that after all this time that we have been preparing for the election, it has been successful. We started since March 31, 2021 when we gave the notice of the election.

“Between then and now every other programme to do with this election has been completed.

“Today, we are at the poll, we want to assure people that by the grace of God this election will be fair, free, credible, acceptable and inclusive.

“The poll has opened, all over the FCT we have feedback that people have been casting their votes,” he said.

Mr Bello said that reports received so far from the field have indicated that there have been no hitches.

He said that the commission had stationed Registration Area Centre (RAC) technicians in locations to ensure rapid response in case of breakdown of the Bi-modal Voting Accreditation System (BVAS).

He said that it took only two minutes to accredit voters with the BVAS adding that all the commission’s facilities were working perfectly.

He said that all INEC’s facilities were being secured by security operatives so there was no need for fear and urged voters to come out and vote for candidates of their choice.

Terungwa Awuhe, Coordinating Supervisor, FCT, Election Operation Support Centre said the centre was a platform for managing elections.

Mr Awuhe said the centre was one of the innovations introduced by the commission.

“It comprises of three tools, the election operation support centre, the election risk management and the election management support.

“Here what we do basically is that we track our compliance to the commission’s planned activities for election day commencing from the eve of the election up to coalition and declaration of results.

“We also track threats, we receive reports of threats in the field and we provide intervention mobilise response to those areas,” he said, adding that so far no negative report was received.

(NAN)