The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has announced that only 44,687 out of an expected 80,410 party agents for the upcoming Edo governorship election were registered on its portal by the July 30 deadline. This was revealed in a statement released in Abuja on Thursday by Sam Olumekun, INEC’s National Commissioner and Chairman of the Information and Voter Education Committee.
The commission had expected the submission of agent details for all 4,519 polling units and 211 collation centers across Edo State, including 192 ward centers, 18 Local Government Area centers, and the state collation center in Benin. Each political party fielding a candidate in the election was expected to nominate 4,730 agents.
Out of the 17 political parties participating in the election, the cumulative expected number of agents was 80,410. However, only 55.6% of this figure, or 44,687 agents, were uploaded to the INEC portal. This included 43,043 polling unit agents, 1,452 ward collation agents, 179 local government collation agents, and 13 state collation agents.
Three political parties successfully submitted the details of their agents across all levels, while one party failed to submit any agents. According to infographics shared by INEC, the APC, PDP, and NNPP submitted the highest number of agents, with the Labour Party (LP) and Zenith Labour Party (ZLP) following closely. On the other hand, the Booth Party (BP) did not submit any agents.
For the state collation agents, 13 parties, including the APC and PDP, submitted one agent each, while the ADC, APGA, BP, and SDP did not nominate any agents. Among the 179 local government collation agents, the AA, APC, LP, PDP, NNPP, and ZLP nominated eight agents each, with several parties failing to submit any.
The significant shortfall in agent submissions highlights a critical gap in the preparations for the Edo governorship election, raising concerns about the readiness of some parties to fully participate in the electoral process. INEC continues to emphasize the importance of agent representation at all polling and collation centers to ensure the credibility of the election.
