No fewer than 40,000 ad hoc staff would be deployed by the Independent National Electoral Commission for the November 11, 2023 governorship polls in Imo, Bayelsa, and Kogi states, according to The PUNCH.
The tenure of the incumbent Governor of Imo State will end on 14 January 2024, while those of Kogi and Bayelsa states end on 26 January 2024, and 13 February 2024, respectively.
In 2019, the commission deployed about 24,000 ad hoc staff for the Kogi and Bayelsa governorship elections on 16 November.
Ahead of the off-cycle elections in November, INEC had on 31 August opened its portal for the recruitment of ad hoc staff.
Efforts to get the number of ad hoc staff the commission would deploy proved abortive.
However, according to the commission, Bayelsa state has 2,244 polling units; Kogi state has 3,508 polling units and Imo State has 4,758 polling units.
With 10,510 polling units in the three states; each unit would be assigned one presiding officer and three assistant presiding officers; making a total of 42,040 ad hoc to be deployed.
Aside from the POs and the APOs, Supervisory Presiding Officers (SPO) would be deployed to man various polling units.
INEC said that all non-sensitive materials had been sent to the three states.
The Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman, Rotimi Oyekanmi, told The PUNCH, “We have supplied all the non-sensitive materials needed for the elections and they are now being batched for the various Registration Areas in the states”.
Also, the collection of Permanent Voter Cards commenced 11 September 2023, and will end 9 October 2023.
