The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said that 17 politicians participating in the September 21 governorship election in Edo State have nominated 44,687 agents.

According to the commission, this figure, representing 55.6%, fell short of the cumulative figure of 80,410 agents it expected for the election.

In a statement released in Abuja on Thursday, INEC National Commissioner and Chairman of the Information and Voter Education Committee, Sam Olumekun, said these in a statement.

Olumekun said that three political parties uploaded their agents’ details for all polling and collation levels. In contrast, one party has no single agent for any level of voting or collation.

He said a summary of the submissions by political parties has been uploaded to the commission’s website and social media platforms for public information.

“Nigerians may recall that since 2020, the Commission has replaced the manual process for accreditation of observers, media, polling and collation agents with dedicated portals to which the required information, including photographs, is uploaded. Political parties were subsequently required to upload the details of their agents for polling units and collation centres for all elections.

“For the Edo State Governorship Election, the portal opened on 17th July 2024 and automatically shut down at midnight on 30th July 2024 as indicated on item 9 on the Timetable and Schedule of Activities for the election released almost a year ago in September 2023.

“In Edo State, there are 4,519 polling units and 211 collation centres, comprising 192 ward centres, 18 Local Government centres and the State collation centre in Benin city. A political party fielding candidate in the election is expected to nominate 4,730 agents.

“From the 17 parties participating in the election, the Commission expected a cumulative figure of 80,410 agents. However, only 44,687 were uploaded to the portal, comprising 43,043 polling, 1,452 wards, 179 Local Government and 13 State collation agents. Put together, the 17 political parties nominated 55.6% of the expected number of agents,” the statement reads.