ANAMBRA GUBER POLL: RESULT COLLATION BEGINS SUNDAY MORNING—INEC

REPORTER: UCHE NDEKE

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says collation of results from Local Government Areas for the Anambra State governorship election held on Saturday will begin on Sunday morning by 10am.

INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner in the state, Dr. Nkwachukwu Orji, who briefed journalists at the commission’s headquarters Saturday night, said the commission was satisfied with the progress of the election, despite the earlier glitches posed by the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines.

He said: “I’m happy to report to you that the technical glitches we experienced with our BVAS were largely solved. We thank the voters and candidates for patiently waiting for the problem with the device to be resolved.

“The report we got from our field officers and independent observers convinced us that most voters were able to vote with the BVAS following the extension of voting period to 4pm and our regulation that any voter on the queue at the time must be allowed to vote.”

Dr. Nkwachukwu had earlier pointed out that voting might continue on Sunday, but during the briefing, he expressed satisfaction that most of those who turned out voted.

However, the INEC REC stated that if there was need for any area not captured to vote subsequently, the commission would take a decision on it.

He added that: “the election is by no means over, we have now entered a critical stage of the process, collation of results. We have made adequate arrangement for collation of results at the registration area, local government areas and the state level.

“Results for polling units are already being uploaded in our IRev portal and registration area and the registration area collation has been progressing well.

“I’m glad to announce that state collation will commence tommorow at the state collation center.”

Meanwhile, the election was largely peaceful as against earlier fears of insecurity.