11 Political parties to take part in Plateau LG Elections

Mr. Plangji Cishak, the Chairman of the Plateau State Independent Electoral Commission PLASIEC, has disclosed that eleven political parties will be contesting in this Wednesday October 9th, 2024 election in the state .

Speaking at a press briefing on Tuesday at the Commission office in Jos, Mr. Plangji said the Commission has put in place adequate measures for a hitch free exercise as they anticipate full participation of the political parties and their supporters in the democratic process.

He said the Commission has maintained an open line of communication with the Inter Party Advisory Council (IPAC), keeping them informed of all preparations, stressing that no political party has been outrightly disqualified from participating, and a level playing ground has been created for all candidates of the 11 political parties in the contest to test their popularity.

He also disclosed that voting will commence at 8 AM on October 9 through the following laid down procedures;

“The voter approaches the presiding officer with their PVC or VIN number, which will be either scanned or inputted into the device to verify if the voter owns the PVC or is registered in the polling unit. Once verified, the manual register is ticked, and the voter is presented with ballot papers to thumbprint and cast their vote in the appropriate ballot box.

“I am proud to share that PLASIEC has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with state tertiary institutions for the display of voter registers across the 4,989 polling units in the state. This is the first time in history that such a courageous step has been taken.

Mr. Plangji announced that a total of 21,000 ad hoc staff will be deployed for the election to ensure that the process runs smoothly.

While urging citizens to be peaceful in their conducts, he said adequate security for the safety of citizens and election officials has been pu5 in place through the massive input of the Plateau Advisory Consultative Committee on Election Security (PLACCES) towards a secured election.

He appealed to members of the press to uphold the professionalism they have demonstrated through out the process and avoid sensationalism and leave the announcement of final results to PLASIEC.