Ahead of Anambra’s governorship election, concerns have been raised over the ability of the adhoc staff engaged by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to effectively man the Bi-Modal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS, to be used for accreditation and result transmission.
The concerns came from a non-governmental organization and election observer group, the Kimpact Development Initiative, KDI, during a stakeholders’ engagement forum on Friday in Awka.
At the meeting, the outcome of various pre-election engagements was unveiled to the stakeholders.
The News Chronicle correspondent in Anambra gathered that the INEC adhoc workers were recruited between mid-September and October 16, while training started and ended between October 16 and November 6 2025, posing a question around how sufficient the time was.
According to the KDI team lead, Bukola Idowu, the duration of training for the ad hoc workers matters, as their competence or incompetence can make or mar the electoral process.
Idowu noted that while the state expects a credible election on Saturday, they have analysed the data from past elections, adding that the engagement was to compare it with the present election, to identify critical aspects that could impact the election negatively.
He stated that the organization is concerned that training of the ad hoc staff ended two days to the election and would be looking out for that and how it plays out during the conduct of the exercise.
“Also, we are concerned that the deployment of 45,000 police operatives for the Anambra election may negatively impact the turnout of voters. In the 2023 General Elections, about 34,000 police operatives were deployed for election security. Even in 2021, when many local governments were under the grip of separatists and criminals, we didn’t have this number of security personnel deployed for the governorship election.
“So, we want to know why and how it will impact the process.
“We know that Anambra had experienced serious voter apathy during the 2021 governorship election, where just about 10 percent of the registered voters participated. We would be watching out to see how the heavy presence of security personnel will impact the election tomorrow,” he said.
The KDI team lead, however, observed that there is a positive angle to the election, adding that their survey revealed that, unlike the last election, as the state moved closer to the election, cases of violence had decreased.
“The decline started since September, the figure on violence went down. The last major violence we had was in July.
“But, every little thing is significant in any election. The number of invalid votes, the competence or incompetence of adhoc staff, the conduct of security agents, the deployments are all very sensitive and can actually change the direction of the election.
“Don’t forget that the figure we released on election finance shows that these candidates have spent billions on this election and nobody is joking about the election.
“It therefore means that every ‘I’ must be dotted and every ‘t’ crossed, if we must have a peaceful and credible election,” Idowu posited.
In a presentation, the head, Research and Strategy department of the KDI, Oluwafemi John, acknowledged that the implication of the short training duration for INEC adhoc staff for the Anambra election is that it reduces the personnel’s mastery of the process and equipment to be used for the election.
He also raised concerns over the expected figure of party agents to be deployed for the election, which was put at 91,000, even though the final deployment was just about 67,000.
Oluwafemi revealed that a total of about 7.1 billion naira has been spent already in the electioneering campaign, noting that three candidates have already violated the provisions of the electoral on the threshold for spending for governorship elections in Nigeria.
