There will be no official role for uniformed soldiers at polling stations across the land when next month’s elections get underway,according to indications from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) .
Only unarmed policemen will be allowed at the 120,000 polling units created for the elections,Saturday Nation gathered yesterday.
The commission is also said to have factored into its preparations possible run-off polls even as it is scheduled to meet with political parties, civil society organizations and representatives of the people of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe in the North-East on Tuesday on the modalities for voting by one million Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).
The exclusion of soldiers from electoral duties,sources said yesterday,is to create an enabling environment for voting.
The decision was taken at strategic meetings between INEC and security agencies on how to make the elections free and fair .
Sources said that having tested the use of unarmed policemen in Ekiti and Osun states, INEC is confident that the 68.8million voters registered for the elections will be adequately protected.
Investigation confirmed last night that INEC has factored likely run-off in presidential and governorship elections into its preparation for the polls.
According to the 1999 Constitution, a candidate shall be deemed elected as President or a governor having scored the highest number of votes cast and he or she has not less than one-quarter of the votes cast at the election in each of at least two thirds of all the states and FCT or local governments in a state.
The INEC source said: “We have made provision for either presidential or governorship poll run-off. We cannot be caught off-guard.”
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