By Desire Emmanuel
One week to the conduct of the governorship election in Ekiti State, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), on Saturday, June 13, said it had identified 469 polling units across the state as potential flashpoints.
The governorship election will be conducted on Saturday, June 20, with the incumbent governor, Biodun Oyebanji, seeking a second term and facing candidates from the opposition parties.
INEC however announced the identification of the flashpoints when it conducted what it described as a statewide mock accreditation exercise designed to test the commission’s technological and operational readiness for the election.
Chairman of the commission, Professor Joash Amupitan, while addressing journalists in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, on Saturday, said the commission had informed security agencies regarding the potential flashpoints.
He disclosed that 1,059,360 registered voters would participate in the election across 2,445 polling units located in 117 registration areas spread across the 16 local government areas in the state.
On what he discovered regarding the mock process, Amupitan revealed that about 469 polling units had been identified as potential flashpoints and would receive enhanced security deployment.
“We are determined to ensure the safety of voters, election officials and journalists. No voter should be intimidated, molested or prevented from exercising his or her democratic right,” he said.
The INEC chairman, however, warned against the spread of misinformation and fake news during the election period, describing disinformation as one of the biggest threats to electoral integrity.
He urged journalists to verify information before publication and make use of the commission’s official communication channels whenever clarification was required.
“The greatest threat we face is not technical failure but misinformation and disinformation. Fake news can create unnecessary panic and undermine public confidence in the electoral process,” he warned.
He however said the mock accreditation exercise, which focused on testing the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and other election-day infrastructure, provided encouraging results and reinforced the commission’s confidence in its preparations.
“We did not want to speak from an air-conditioned boardroom in Abuja relying solely on paperwork. We went to the theatre of operations to see for ourselves how our systems are holding up,” Amupitan said.
