We Won’t Postpone, Cancel 2023 Elections – INEC

The Independent National Electoral Commission has disclosed that the 2023 general elections will not be postponed or cancelled no matter the challenge the country is facing at the moment.

This was made known by the Resident Electoral Commissioner of Osun State, Dr Mutiu Agboke, who spoke to newsmen in Ibadan, Oyo State capital on Thursday.

Mutiu, who said there are no plans to cancel the 2023 elections, added that it would hold, “notwithstanding any challenge or challenges, we are going to have the general elections by God’s grace”.

He disclosed that ad hoc staff that will work during the 2023 general elections will be taken through the nitty gritty of Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and all the electioneering processes.

Mutiu noted that the commission puts a lot of importance on ad hoc staff of the forthcoming elections.

He said, “Not just for corps members, but for those who are going to serve as supervising polling officers and collation officers.

“Everyone must be outstanding in the job, as the commission is not going to tolerate anybody sabotaging the election processes for us.

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“We are going to train and retrain all ad hoc staff, organised refresher courses for them, all these will enhance the election processes to achieve success.”

Agboke added there was Code of Conduct for the election which all the ad hoc staff would sign, saying anyone that did contrary to it shall face the wrath of law.

The REC further said that the commission would soon conduct mock accreditation across the country before the general elections.

According to him, the exercise will be done at selected polling units to ascertain the performance of the BVAS.

“We have used BVAS in some of our by-elections and off season governorship elections.

“But in the wisdom of the commission, it decided that the new technology of BVAS has to be test-run, look at the way it will perform since the commission has not used it during general elections.

“This will make us know whether its efficiency is still guaranteed or otherwise.

“So, the commission will announce the date for the exercise soon, it has picked the senatorial districts, local governments, wards and polling units where the mock accreditation will be held,” he explained.