The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC has announced plans to conduct fresh re-run elections in 18 polling units in plateau state.
The Resident Electoral Commissioner in the State, Dr Oliver Agundu, disclosed this while speaking with journalists in Jos on Saturday.
According to Agundu, the fresh election followed complaints of ballot paper shortages deployed to some polling units during the Saturday re-run.
The REC, who stated that an investigation had been launched by the commission to unravel the cause of the ballot papers shortage in the affected polling units said, “In respect of the reports that were coming in from some poling units that there were shortages of ballot papers in respect of the Federal House of Representatives seat, we did a holistic appraisal of the situation and we have received a comprehensive report on all the poling units and they summed up to 18 of them in total.”
The REC said to resolve the issues amicably, the commission had summoned a meeting of party stakeholders at the INEC headquarters to brief them on the situation.
“We have decided to meet with leaders of politics and the media by 8pm today (Saturday) at the state INEC headquarters in Jos because election is a stake-holding exercise. So, we will brief other stakeholders and then inform them of our next plan of action but we are thinking that we will not take for granted that this is an insignificant number.
“We will see the possibility of also giving them the opportunity to also cast their votes tomorrow (Sunday), but we will make a final position on that when we meet by 8pm. That is the situation and we want the public to know that we take their concerns seriously. We are also doing a very thorough investigation on what has happened on these polling units,” the REC added.
According to reports on Saturday, some INEC officials were held hostage by angry voters who wanted to cast their ballot but could not due to a shortage of ballot papers.
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