By: Vitalis Ugoh, Calabar
The Cross River State Independent Electoral Commission (CROSIEC) has conducted a one day training exercise for Supervisory Presiding Officers (SPOs) and Electoral officers in the build up to November 2, 2024 local government Councils Election in the state.
Speaking while declaring the exercise open, the Chairman of the Cross River State Independent Electoral Commission (CROSIEC) Dr Ekong Edet Boco appealed to participants to take the exercise seriously as they were expected at the end of their training to assist the commission in training other level of adhoc workers that will used for the election.
” It is a very important exercise, nobody can pass a message to another person until you are able to capture what was given to you” otherwise you will be passing a wrong message, he maintained,”.
Boco hinted that at the end of the training exercise, participants will be posted to different local government areas where they will serve, he also enjoined them to identify and interact with their respective Electoral officers to enhance smooth operations and pledged the assistance of the commission to enable them to succeed .
He also disclosed that the various resources persons for the training were carefully selected to train them on the necessary demands of conducting a credible election and urged them to use the opportunity to upscale their knowledge.
The objectives of the training exercise include among others , getting participants acquainted with the objectives of the exercise, introduction and general background, election materials and operations for polling , polling procedure,
sorting,counting and recording votes among others.
In a related development the Electoral umpire has decentralise the screening exercise for candidates of political parties in the upcoming Local Government Councils Election in the state.
Citing the present economic hardship and poor state of roads as well as the high cost of transportation as reasons for the decision, CROSIEC announced that the screening of all chairmanship and vice chairmanships candidates shall hold on the 21st and 22nd October 2024, at the Hogis Royals and Apartment Calabar, also the screening of all councillorship candidates from Southern Senatorial District will hold at the same venue on the same same days. .
While Screening of all councillorship candidates from Central Senatorial District will hold at Hotel 45 Ikom, that of the Northern Senatorial District will hold at Okwango Hotel , Ogoja from 21st to 22nd October,2024 respectively.
