The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said six political parties will participate in Saturday’s Kano State House of Assembly by-election in Dawakin Kudu Constituency.
INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner in Kano, Abdu Zango, confirmed the development on Tuesday after an Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES) meeting with heads of security agencies at the Kano State Police Command headquarters.
He said the commission would deploy 1,500 ad hoc staff across 303 polling units, adding that non-sensitive materials had already been distributed while sensitive materials would arrive on Wednesday.
“Every election is a learning process. We did that before in Dawakin Kudu and it was free, fair, credible, peaceful. No issue whatsoever. We will do the same, even better,” Zango assured.
Zango said both INEC and security agencies had assured residents of a peaceful, free and fair poll.
Also speaking, the state’s Commissioner of Police, Ibrahim Adamu Bakori, said the deployment of personnel would begin on Thursday.
“We are fully prepared and deployment will commence by Thursday. It is going to be peaceful, fair and free. We are ready to go. There is always improvement in every process, and definitely there is an improvement from what we have done before,” he said.
The Dawakin Kudu by-election was scheduled after the seat became vacant following the former member’s move to the House of Representatives.
INEC had earlier disclosed that the constituency has 162,445 registered voters, with 148,971 Permanent Voter Cards collected, representing a 91.7 per cent collection rate.
