The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says the lingering strike by Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) will have serious impact on preparations for the conduct of the 2019 general election, Vanguard reports.
The Chairman, information and voter education committee of INEC, Festus Okoye made this known at a one-day seminar on Media and Gender Sensitive Reporting of Elections in Abuja. He said it was impossible for National Youth Service Corp (NYSC) to provide all the ad-hoc staff needs and requirements of the commission.
“For the 2019 elections, INEC will recruit and deploy over one million adhoc staff made up of lecturers and students in federal tertiary institutions and corps members.
“These category of adhoc staff will serve as returning officers, collation officers, supervisory presiding officers and assistant presiding officers. The bulk of assistant presiding officers will be drawn from students of institutions; INEC is presently organising root training for corps members and wants to begin that with students.
“So it is important and imperative that they are in school a month before the election for this to happen.”
He appealed to the Federal Government and ASUU to resolve issues that led to the industrial action in the overall interest of the country.
