Stakeholders at a meeting in Imo state have called on the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC to address late arrival of materials and other bottlenecks surrounding collection of permanent voter cards to enhance credibility in the forthcoming governorship election.
Mr. Samuel Ozonna from the Civil Society Organization called for more sensitization of citizens to enhance participation.
He said the Organization would always mobilize eligible voters to collect their permanent voter cards, however, some INEC personnel were not always on seat to issue the pvcs.
The President Imo State Council of Presidents-General, Mr. Chigozie Omuruka commended INEC for the successes recorded in the last general election.
Mr Omuruka called on the commission to ensure that only accredited agents of political parties were allowed access to result collation centers to avoid undue interference.
Mr. Stanley Igbo from Action Alliance called for adequate training of ad hoc staff, noting that some of them were not familiar with their roles during the last elections.
The Resident Electoral Commissioner in the State, Professor Sylvia Agu explained that the meeting was to interface with political parties, civil society groups, security agents, town union bodies and religious bodies on ways of ensuring a free fair and credible election;
He added that the commission had embarked on capacity building of its staff and measures are being taken to avert some of the hitches experienced during the last elections.
Reporting by Chinazo Ilechukwu, Editing by Omolola Ameen and Adeniyi Bakare