The Independent National Electoral Commission has said it is ready for today’s governorship poll in Cross River State.
This also is the position of a group of professionals, the Project Swift Count, which says it has deployed 628 observers for the poll.
The Resident Electoral Commissioner of INEC for Cross River State, Mike Igini, and Kayode Idowu, the Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, said that the commission was fully prepared for the election.
Igini, who spoke in Calabar, the Cross River State capital, said that the exercise would commence as scheduled as all materials needed for the election had been put in place.
Idowu, who spoke on a television programme on Friday, said all the non-sensitive materials for the election had arrived in the state well ahead of the election.
He said that the sensitive materials had already left Abuja as at the time he was speaking on the programme and that it would be there on time for the election.
He said the commission does not envisage any hitch in the election, which is schedule to commence at 8am with the accreditation of voters.
Voting, he said, will commence at 12.30 after the headcount of those who showed up for accreditation had been taken.
Meanwhile, a group made up of professionals, the Project Swift Count, said it has deployed 628 observers to monitor the election.
The group is made up of such bodies as the Transition Monitoring Group, the Nigerian Bar Association and the Federated Association of Muslim Women in Nigeria.
The co-chairman of the PSC, Mr. Mashood Erubami, said: “Of this figure, 600 will be deployed in pre-randomly selected polling units spread across the 18 local government areas, while the remaining 28 will rove.”
The observers had since been accredited by INEC.
Twelve political parties will participate in today’s election.
They include the Action Congress of Nigeria with Pastor Usani Usani as candidate; All Nigeria Peoples Party, with Chief Patrick Okomiso; Congress for Progressive Change, with Mrs. Mary Ekpere; Hope Democratic Party has Dr. Theo Onyuku as its candidate; Labour Party, Mrs. Imah Nsa-Adegoke; Peoples Democratic Party, Senator Liyel Imoke; and United Nigerian Democratic Party, Dr. Ebiti Ndok.