Plateau LG election: We’re satisfied at voter turnout, says PLASIEC chairman, Cishak
Chairman of the Plateau State Independent Electoral Commission (PLASIEC), Plangji Cishak, has said that he’s satisfied at the turn out of voters in Saturday’s local government election in the state.
About 894 candidates from 11 political parties ate slugging it out for votes to fill the chairmanship and councillorship position from 2,789, 528 voters in 17 local government areas of the state.
There are 342 electoral constituencies with 325 Electoral wards and 4989 polling units strewn across the 17 council areas of the state.
Speaking with newsmen in his office on Saturday, Cishak said that as at 10.30 to 11am Wednesday morning, the 40 per cent of the registered had voted while Electoral materials have been distributed.
According to him, the commission started the distribution from far-off local government areas so as to beat the voting time.He assured the voting population that nobody will be disenfranchised as arrangements have been concluded to allow those on queue to vote even up to midnight
He said, “The updates we’re getting. from the situation room is that quite a number of voters across the state have started voting.
“As of the time I was in the Situation Room, it was about 30 to 40 percent turnout across the state, but unfortunately because our materials, the sensitive materials, arrived at our office very late, so we now chose to start distribution at the farthest local governments to ensure that those who are close will be attended later. “Unfortunately for us, materials were shared very late into the morning of today. Before I came to the office, I had to go to about four ward areas and I saw these supervisors trying to discharge them with their materials, presiding officers and the poll clerks to the respective polling units.
On the observation that some of the software was not either downloading or they’re having issues, Cishak said, “Where are we now as we speak is that we have made provisions, we have envisaged that, and we’ve made provisions in the law where there are glitches, where it could not be able to download, they will revert to the manual.
“The accreditation is a dual process. First the verification, then the manual register. As long as the person is in the register and he has his details, he will be accredited through the manual. But where the VVS is working, we advise that it should be sustained.
“We prioritized the sharing of materials to the local governments that are far. And unfortunately, the local governments here were affected. As of the time that I came to the office, I had already gone to four ward areas, and I saw them, the supervisors, trying to discharge the personnel at the reporting unit levels to move.
“So I’m sure by now, some of these areas, if you call, you’ll find out that the process is starting, or they have already commenced. But on the issue of a dedicated line, we have a situation room. I’m going to give the numbers of those in the situation room.
“They are doing quite a lot of job there. From my findings before this interview, we have a total turnout of over close to 40 percent. That’s at the polling unit.”
However, situation reports at some of the polling units indicated that at Angina Gada ward 028, Tudun wada, voting has started and people are exercise their civic responsibility.
But at nearby Nepa close, country home and wamba close polling units, PLASIEC officials are not ground as at 11 am.
Electorate were seeing patiently waiting for their arrival to cast their votes.
At Gurum A polling Unit, voting materials have just arrived while election is yet to begin. Voters are also queueing up for the exercise as officials sort out the materials.
Security operatives are also present at the unit while business activities are booming in the area.
Voting has commenced in Gura Topp ward 016 and the election is peaceful with voters seen conducting themselves orderly.
At Shendam Ward A there was a mix-up in the voter register which delayed the voting process.
