ANAMBRA GUBER ELECTIONS: INEC training for POs, APOs begins today
Oru Leonard
The Training of Presiding Officers (POs) and Assistant Presiding Officers on Polling and Counting Procedures in Preparation for Anambra Governorship Elections commenced Friday October 22, 2021. The Anambra State Governorship Election is scheduled to hold on 6th November, 2021.
The 3 days Training is organized by the Electoral Institute with the objective that at the end of the training, participants should demonstrate the ability to conduct Polling and Counting Procedures and effectively perform the electoral functions of PO/APO in line with the First Supplementary Guidelines and Regulations to Elections and the INEC Policy on Conducting Elections in the Context of COVID-19 Pandemic.
The training is being conducted in all the 21 Local Government Areas of Anambra State.
Participants at the training are mainly Corp Members serving in the State. Others include ex-Corp Members and final year students of federal tertiary Institutions.
The Training will amongst others, focus on Polling Date and Time, Code of Conduct of Electoral Officials, Electoral Materials, Sorting, Counting and Announcement of Results. Filling of form EC8A. Practical sessions on the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and Uploading the Result to Viewing Portal (iREV) would also be conducted*.
The BVAS and iRev are technology driven initiatives recently introduced by the Commission to guarantee transparency and credibility of the electoral process.
Also introduced into the electoral process is the INEC SECURITY ALERT NOTIFICATION SYSTEM (INEC-SANS), A real time monitoring and notification system designed to alert the Commission on threats on safety and security of INEC officials, materials and facilities before, during and after elections.
The DG, TEI in his goodwill message through the coordinating trainers urged participants to pay due attention in the course of the training and to ask questions where necessary especially on activating the INEC-SANS to ensure security of Election officials, stressing the need for compulsory wearing of face mask at all Polling Units and other Protocols of the COVID-19 Pandemic as contained in the Voter Code of Conduct for the election. He further advised participants to be above board while on Election duty as POs/APOs so as to ensure free, fair and credible Election on the 6th of November, 2021.
