Off-cyle elections kicked off this morning, (Saturday, November 11, 2023) in three Nigerian states of Kogi, Imo and Bayelsa.
Off-cycle elections are held outside the general elections schedule due to circumstances such as death, resignation, impeachment and the annulment of elections by courts, among others.
In this morning’s elections, observers will be looking at voter turnout, the state of security in and around the polling stations, punctuality to site of electoral officials and equipment, the nature of deployment of technologyware by polling officials, as well as the level of freeness and fairness in the process.
Voting started around 08:30am in polling units in the three states, according to reports reaching us.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has deployed 46,000 staff of the commission to the three states while sensitive and non-sensitive materials including Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines have arrived at the polling units.
In Imo State, INEC gave the figure of the registered voters as 2, 419,922 and Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) collected as 2,318,919 with youths and the middle age demographical groups having 33% (801K) and 32% (783K).
In Kogi, the total number of registered voters is 1,932,654 and PVCs collected is 1,833,160 with youths taking a lump 44% (850k) and the middle-aged having 32% (341K).
For Bayelsa, the total number of registered voters is 1,056,862 whilst total PVCs collected put at 1,017,613 with youths taking 42% (439K) and the middle-aged having 40% (424K).
Duoye Diri, governor of Bayelsa State and Hope Uzodimma of Imo State are seeking re-election and Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State is not in the contest, being at the tail end of his second term in office.
Contenders in the governorship poll in Kogi include Murtala Ajaka of the Social Democratic Party (SDP); Leke Abejide of the African Democratic Party (ADC); Dino Melaye of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP); and Usman Ododo of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
