Seventeen political parties participating in the upcoming Edo State Governorship election have so far nominated only 44,687 of the 80,410 agents required for the electoral process, according to data released by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Thursday.
The data, signed by Sam Olumekun, INEC’s National Commissioner in charge of Information and Voter Education, highlighted the logistical requirements for the election. Edo State, with 4,519 polling units and 211 collation centers—including 192 ward centers, 18 Local Government centers, and the State collation center in Benin City—requires each political party to nominate 4,730 agents.
“From the 17 parties participating in the election, the Commission expected a cumulative figure of 80,410 agents. However, only 44,687 were uploaded to the portal, comprising 43,043 polling agents, 1,452 ward agents, 179 Local Government agents, and 13 State collation agents. In total, the 17 political parties nominated only 55.6% of the expected number of agents,” Olumekun stated.
A closer review of the data shows that three political parties successfully uploaded the details of their agents across all levels of polling and collation, while one party failed to upload any agent details at any level.
The All Progressives Congress (APC), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Labour Party (LP), New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), and Zenith Labour Party (ZLP) were among the parties that substantially met the nomination requirements.
Since 2020, INEC has replaced the manual process for accrediting observers, media, polling, and collation agents with a digital portal system, requiring political parties to upload the necessary information, including photographs, of their agents.
