The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has slated Saturday for mock accreditation of voters in preparation for the November 11 governorship election in the state.

The INEC national chairman, Mahmud Yakubu, disclosed this at the Kogi INEC Headquarters in Lokoja during the official publication of the voters’ register to the 18 participating political parties in the upcoming governorship election.

Mr Yakubu, represented by a national commissioner, Sani Adam (SAN), said the exercise would take place in only nine polling units, three each from the state’s three senatorial districts.

The chairman announced that a similar exercise would simultaneously take place in Bayelsa and Imo states, where governorship election will also be held on November 11.

The INEC boss called on voters in the selected polling units to come out en masse to participate in the exercise, which he described as a litmus test to the real election.

He said the commission was well prepared for the governorship poll. He appealed to politicians and the electorate to abide by the rules of the game for a peaceful, credible and successful conduct of the election.

Mr Yakubu said the total number of registered voters in Kogi for the election is 1,932,654.

“A copy of the register of voters in PDF will be issued to all the political parties contesting the election.

“The commission will deploy the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) in all the 3,508 polling units in Kogi for the election.

“Already, we have trained technical support staff that will be deployed to all the Registration Areas (RAs) and the local Governments to provide technical support for BVAS,” he said.

Responding, the state IPAC chairman, Ukwenge Musa, commended INEC for its preparations and readiness for the governorship election.

(NAN)