—- Announces 1,059, 360 Total Registered Voters
Ahead of the June 20th governorship election in Ekiti State, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has officially presented the voters register to be used during the exercise to all the participating political parties while announcing that one million, fifty nine thousand, three hundred and sixty (1,059, 360) eligible voters were registered for the exercise.
While speaking with journalists at the INEC head office in Ado Ekiti on Wednesday, the National Chairman of the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Joash Amupitan said, it is a great honour and a momentous day because the Commission is performing a constitutional and a statutory duty of the publication and presentation of the voters register to political parties for Ekiti state governorship election that will be coming up in a month’s time.
Amupitan said the electoral act requires that 30 days before the election, the register of voters must be published and presented to the political parties.
“You will notice that when the timetable and schedules of activities were released sometime last year, there were nine major activities that were lined up. And I’m happy to note and to report that out of these nine major activities, seven have been successfully completed.
“So we are waiting for the last two which has to do with the end of campaigns which will end on the 18th day of June 2026 and then the opening of the poll on the 20th of June 2026.
“So therefore it is with great sense of responsibility and a sense of commitment that I stand before you today and I’m not sure any other state has that privilege of this publication and presentation to be witnessed by the chairman and almost all the national commissioners.
“Now this moment signifies a crucial step in reinforcing the integrity, the transparency, and credibility of our electoral process,” He said.
The National Chairman noted that the voters register is the foundation upon which free, fair, and credible elections are built, stressing that Its accuracy, completeness, and integrity are paramount to ensuring that every eligible voter’s voice is heard and that the will of the people is accurately reflected.
“Today we stand here to present to you a comprehensive and meticulously compiled voters register prepared after a rigorous data collection, total verification, and diligent cleaning exercise.
“I want to assure you that we have satisfied all the provisions in section nine of the electoral act by updating and even including the newly registered voters together with the previous records that we have in INEC. Let me inform you also that the accurate data will be given by the director in charge of voters register.
“For the 2023 election we had about 900,000 voters registered in Ekiti state,but as a result of the continuous voters registration the number has increased to about 1,059,360 or thereabouts which represents an addition of about 66,000 additional new voters.” The chairman noted.
Amupitan said the register was developed through careful collaboration with relevant stakeholders of which, the process is still on with this event today and utilizing innovative technology to ensure its reliability and accuracy.
He said as political parties and stakeholders their role in safeguarding the integrity of this process cannot be overstated. He therefore urged them to review the register diligently and report any discrepancies promptly and adhere strictly to the guidelines provided for the upcoming elections. He noted that It is the responsibility of INEC to conduct free, credible and transparent elections but INEC cannot do it alone, therefore, must be a shared responsibilities.
He announced that other programme slated for the week is the signing of the peace accord which is a social contract among the political parties and between the political parties and the people of Ekiti and Nigeria that the election must be run peacefully, campaigns must be based on issues and not on personality or nepotism.
Amupitan warned against vote buying saying, it is one of the major challenges and constraint to our electoral process. He said the issue of vote buying or vote trading is a criminal act and a criminal offense under the electoral acts and it is the responsibilities of the law enforcement agencies, most especially the EFCC, the ICPC and the police to ensure that those that are involve in it are arrested and promptly prosecuted.
He therefore urged all political parties to please refrain from this issue of vote trading because it is a big minus to the electoral process in Nigeria.
In his opening address, the INEC Resident Commissioner in Ekiti State, Dr Bunmi Omoseyindemi said the Ekiti State office of the Commission has continued to make steady progress at ensuring successful conduct of the 2026 Ekiti governorship election and part of the success recorded is the visit of the National Chairman and Commissioners for the readiness assessment.
.The Ekiti REC noted that as part of there preparation, the Commission has collaborated with security agencies, political parties, traditional institutions, civil society organisations and the media, at ensuring that the forthcoming election is peaceful, credible, inclusive and transparent.
He noted further that the publication and presentation of Register of Voters to Political Parties is another major milestone in the electoral process. This exercise according to him is in line with the provisions of Electoral Act and the commission’s timetable and the schedule of activities which also reflects the commitments of the commission to transparency accountability and fairness.
The Resident Commissioner said other measures put in place to ensure a credible election are the training and retraining of electoral officers, assistant electoral officers and other key staff.
Continuous stakeholders engagement with political parties, traditional rulers, youth groups women groups, persons with disabilities, media and civil society organization are ongoing and voter’s education sensitization activities has been expanded across the 16 local government areas to address misinformation, voter apathy and election related tension .
Other measures according to him included, arrangement for transportation, communication and logistic deployment has been revealed and strengthened, inspection and readiness checks on election technology including bivas deployment and support arrangements.
Omoseyindemi stated that measure for safe conduct and timely distribution of sensitive and non-sensitive materials have been enhanced while some critical activities are still ongoing and will be concluded within the timelines provided by the commission which includes final recruitment and training of ad- hoc staff for election duty among others.
He appealed to all political parties, candidates and their supporters to continue to conduct themselves peacefully and responsibly, saying, the success of the election depends on the collective commitment to democratic values, peaceful engagement, and strict compliance with the electoral acts and guidelines issued by the Commission.
“Ekiti State is known for political maturity and democratic participation, and we must all work together to sustain that reputation before, during, and after election.” He said.
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