Few months to the 2023 general election in NIgeria, the country’s electoral umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission has budgeted the sum of N239.2bn on procuring voting materials and vehicles that would be used in the conduct of the polls.
The above figure is contained in the 2023 General Election Project Plan that was launched by the Commission in Abuja on Thursday.
The commission stated that N239.2bn which constituted 78.44 per cent of its N305bn budget, would be spent on 10 critical items which included ballot papers, operational vehicles, ballot boxes, allowances of ad hoc workers, the printing of result sheets, logistics and procurement of accreditation devices.
The sum of N27.1bn is set aside by the commission for possible run-off elections, including the one for the presidential poll in the event that no clear winner emerges after the first balloting.
A breakdown of the document, 2023 General Election Project Plan, shows that the highest single component would be the procurement of accreditation devices which will gulp N105.2bn. This also constitutes 34.51 per cent of the total election budget of N305bn.
The allowance for ad hoc workers, who will be more than one million people, is pegged at N23.7bn while N23bn was set aside for election logistics expenses which include the movement, deployment and retrieval of men and materials for the elections.
The Commission plans to spend N20.6bn on the printing of ballot papers and N12.7bn on the procurement of non-sensitive materials while setting aside N9.5bn for the printing of result sheets, N7.8bn for the procurement of ballot boxes and a separate N5.39bn for the same purpose. The electoral body will also spend N3.9bn for the procurement of operational vehicles.
INEC on Thursday said that no amount of security challenges would stop the conduct of the 2023 general election.
The Chairman of INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, stated this during the public presentation of the 2022-2026 strategic plan and the 2023 Election Project Plan in Abuja.
The commission also said that about one million electoral officials, both regular and ad hoc staff would be deployed to 176,846 polling units in 8,809 Wards and 774 Local Government Areas in the country.
He said, “As you may be aware, the election will be conducted for 1,491 constituencies nationwide made up of one presidential constituency, 109 senatorial districts, 360 federal constituencies, 28 governorship elections and 993 state constituencies.
“The election will involve an estimated one million electoral officials (both permanent and temporary or ad hoc staff) deployed to 176,846 polling units in 8,809 Wards and 774 Local Government Areas across the country. The election will be governed by a new Electoral Act 2022, which contains many progressive provisions that will enhance the capacity of the commission to conduct elections and manage the electoral process better.
“We have carefully listened to the demand of Nigerians for seamless processes, particularly with regard to enhanced voter education, better distribution of voters to polling units, quality training of election personnel, the functionality of electronic devices, improved logistics, prompt commencement of polls, and availability of assistive devices for persons with disability at polling units and greater transparency in result management.”
