INEC: Ondo election must hold because we are fully prepared

‎The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says it will not postpone the Ondo governorship election scheduled for Saturday.

Mahmood Yakubu, chairman of the commission, said this at‎ an event for electoral stakeholders in Akure on Tuesday.

“Every eligible voter shall be accredited and immediately thereafter receive the ballot paper and proceed to vote without a break,” he said.

“Means of accreditation remains the smart card reader (SCR) upon the presentation of the prospective voter’s permanent voter card.

“We have configured, recharged and deployed enough SCRs for the election. In the event of a malfunction, we have enough spare smart card readers for immediate replacement.

“We had no plan to postpone this coming election this weekend because we are fully ready.”

The Ahmed Makarfi faction of the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) had called for a postponement of the election owing to its legal battle over representation.

On Monday, 20 political parties also called for the postponement of the election.

But INEC has now said that the exercise will go on‎.