By Emmanuel Oloniruha
A total of 1,017,613 registered voters are expected to determine who becomes the next governor of Bayelsa as voting opens on Saturday.
In the race are 16 political parties and their candidates including the incumbent, Gov. Douye Diri of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Timipre Slyva of the All Progressives Congress (APC), and Eradiyi Udengmobofa of the Labour Party (LP).
The election will hold in all the eight Local Government Areas (LGAs) in the state, namely, Brass, Ekeremor, Kolokuma/Opokuma, Nembe, Ogbia, Sagbama, Southern Ijaw and Yenegoa.
The poll is expected to begin in all the 2,242 Polling Units across the eight local government areas from 8.30am to 2.30pm or when the last voter on queue finish voting.
A breakdown of the total registered voters according to INEC shows that 556,085 (54 per cent) are males, 490, 767 females (46 per cent), and Persons Living with Disability, 880.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the statistics from INEC also revealed that 42 per cent of the voters are youth between the age of 18 and 34, while those 35 to 49 represents 40 per cent.
Elderly voters aged 50 to 67 are up to 159,940, representing 15 per cent of total registered voters, while those aged 70 years and above are 33, 275, representing 3% of the voters.
The number of election officials deployed by INEC include one Retuning Officer, eight LGA collation officers and LGA supervisors each, 105 Registration Area Collation Officers, 225 Supervisory Presiding Officers, 2,244 Presiding Officers, 6,732 Assistant Presiding Officers, and one consultancy supervisor.
A total of 118 domestic and eight foreign election observers have been accredited to monitor the election across the state.
The INEC has pledged to conduct free, fair and credible election in which the people would determine their own governor.
The security agency also pledged to provide secure environment for the peaceful conduct of the election.(NAN)
