According to the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Mahmud Yakub, while speaking on Wednesday with the Senate Committee on INEC, the commission would be recruiting about one million ad hoc members of staff for the conduct of the 2019 general elections.
The INEC boss, who stated that the ad hoc workers that would be deployed for the polls that will begin in 484 days from now, will be about 300 higher than the 700 engaged for the 2015 general elections, said;
“The projected increase in the number of ad hoc (members of ) staff to be engaged in the elections by the commission arose from the need to make provisions for adequate manpower for the exercise on a general template and, specifically, to take care of peculiar needs for that purpose in some polling units across the federation.”
Prof. Mahmud Yakub who also disclosed at the interactive session with the lawmakers, that the commission was planning to make the five categories of disfranchised Nigerians participate in the 2019 general elections. The five categories, according to him, are the 16,000 INEC personnel, members of the civil society organisations who serve as election monitors and observers, the media, security personnel and prison inmates.
While assuring Nigerians that the smart card readers to be deployed for the polls would function efficiently as users would be adequately trained on its usage before the election, Yakub noted that the irregularities recorded in the last poll due to malfunctioning of the devices, would be prevented in the forthcoming elections as adequate training would be provided for those to who would handle the equipment.
"Controversies and challenges raised on the smart card readers in the 2015 elections, to us in INEC, were over magnified because the problem was not technological on the part of the device but attitudinal on the part of the users due to lack of adequate training." Yakub said.
“Thus, because the problem is more of attitudinal than technological defects, solid steps are being taken by the commission to bring about robust interface between the machine and those to use them in terms of practical trainings before the elections,” Yakub added..
The INEC boss, who stated that the ad hoc workers that would be deployed for the polls that will begin in 484 days from now, will be about 300 higher than the 700 engaged for the 2015 general elections, said;
“The projected increase in the number of ad hoc (members of ) staff to be engaged in the elections by the commission arose from the need to make provisions for adequate manpower for the exercise on a general template and, specifically, to take care of peculiar needs for that purpose in some polling units across the federation.”
Prof. Mahmud Yakub who also disclosed at the interactive session with the lawmakers, that the commission was planning to make the five categories of disfranchised Nigerians participate in the 2019 general elections. The five categories, according to him, are the 16,000 INEC personnel, members of the civil society organisations who serve as election monitors and observers, the media, security personnel and prison inmates.
While assuring Nigerians that the smart card readers to be deployed for the polls would function efficiently as users would be adequately trained on its usage before the election, Yakub noted that the irregularities recorded in the last poll due to malfunctioning of the devices, would be prevented in the forthcoming elections as adequate training would be provided for those to who would handle the equipment.
"Controversies and challenges raised on the smart card readers in the 2015 elections, to us in INEC, were over magnified because the problem was not technological on the part of the device but attitudinal on the part of the users due to lack of adequate training." Yakub said.
“Thus, because the problem is more of attitudinal than technological defects, solid steps are being taken by the commission to bring about robust interface between the machine and those to use them in terms of practical trainings before the elections,” Yakub added..
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