The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says six political parties will participate in Saturday’s Kano State House of Assembly by-election in Dawakin Kudu Constituency.
The Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in Kano, Abdu Zango, disclosed this 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.
Zango said the commission would deploy 1,500 ad hoc staff to 303 polling units in the constituency.
He said non-sensitive election 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 said.
He added that INEC and security agencies had put measures in place to ensure a peaceful, free and fair election.
Also speaking, the Commissioner of Police in Kano, Ibrahim Adamu Bakori, said the deployment of security personnel would commence 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,” Bakori said.
He said there would always be improvements in the electoral process, adding that security agencies had improved on their previous preparations.
The Dawakin Kudu by-election was scheduled following the vacancy created by the former occupant of the seat, who moved to the House of Representatives.
INEC had earlier said that the constituency had 162,445 registered voters, with 148,971 Permanent Voter Cards collected, representing a 91.7 per cent collection rate.
The election is scheduled to hold on Saturday.
