Here’s a step-by-step breakdown of how this election will be conducted tomorrow

by Adedayo Ademuwagun

Courtesy: ynaija

 

People have been talking about the election date for the past seven weeks now, with rumours flying around about an indefinite postponement. But now the big day is tomorrow and it’s time for the Nigerian people to decide who will run this country for the next four years.

A lot of people will probably turn up to vote tomorrow given how much people engaged during the buildup and given the level anticipation people have demonstrated. In fact, many of these people will be voting for their first time tomorrow.

Perhaps you’re a going to be a first-time voter too or you’re just wondering how elections work and how things will pan out.

Here’s a step by step breakdown of how this election will be conducted.

Step 1 – Camping

INEC officials who’ll be on the ground on Saturday get to the Registration Area Centres (RAC) tonight.

The RACs are where they store election materials, and there’s one in every ward. So they pass the night at the RAC located in the ward they’ve been assigned to so they can get to their respective polling booths first thing on Saturday morning.

Step 2 – Arrival

Saturday morning. The INEC people report at the booth before 8am with their stuff, and they set up their equipment while voters are arriving.

Step 3 – Accreditation

Voters who’ve arrived check their name on the roster to be sure they’re eligible to vote at this booth. Then they line up for accreditation.

Meanwhile, the officials walk the voters through the details and let them know how the procedure will come along. Accreditation starts by 8amand ends by 1pm. The officials check each voter’s PVC using the card reader.

Step 4 – Lag

Now the officials talk to them about how the voting process will continue. If the accreditation finishes before the time set for voting to begin, the officials asks the voters to wait till it’s time. So some people go have a drink or talk about the election while they wait.

Step 5 – Voting

First the officials come forward and count the people on the queue. Then they set up the ballot boxes and the people go into the compartment to put their ballot in the box.

The ballot is a long paper that has the all the party logos and their candidates on it. You’ll get one paper to thumbprint on for your favourite candidate.

Voting will continue for the next few hours in the presence of observers, party agents and security officers.

Step 6 – Unit Collation

After everyone on the queue has voted, probably at around sunset, the officers begin counting the votes in the presence of everyone. Then the results are announced and some people hang around for a while to rub minds and congratulate each other.

Step 7 – Ward collation

After that, the officials get their things and move to the ward collation centre that their polling booth is under. Officials from all of the polling booths under each ward report to the ward collation centre for their ward. This is where results from all the polling booths for that ward are collated.

Step 8 – Local government collation

When they’re finished, they move to the local government area collation centre with the results. Each local government area has this collation centre. At this place the results from all the wards under that local government are collated.

Step 9 – State collation

Next the results are taken to the INEC head office in that state. There the results from all the local governments of the state are computed.

By the next day the officials at the state offices would have verified result details for their state and all states electronically transmit their results to the INEC headquarters in Abuja.

Step 10 – Finale

At the headquarters the results from the states are collated and then the returning officer, usually the INEC chairman, calls the results state by state in front of an army of journalists. Finally, the winner is announced and the election is done.

—————-

Connect with the writer on Twitter @_Adedayo_