By Press Council.
The management of The Polytechnic, Ibadan, has declared Wednesday, 19th October, 2022, as the Students’ Union E-Voting election date.
According to the memo received by Press Council, the election date would be a lecture/project free day, also no student is expected to be found within the school premises on the election day.
“Kindly be informed that the Management has approved that the E-Voting Election into the various positions in the Students’Union Executives and the Students’ Senate House be held on Wednesday, 19th October, 2022.”
“In view of the above, the management has declared the day (Wednesday, 19th October, 2022) as Lecture/Project Free Day for all students.”
Meeting with contestants for the Students’Union Executives positions, the Chairman of the Electoral Committee, who doubles as the Dean, Students’ Affairs, Mr Makinde, charged the aspirants to revive the sportsmanship spirits in them, he also apologized for the delay in the election process.
“We followed the election calendar till the Manifesto day, but due to financial and logistics issues, we couldn’t have the main election itself, but the management has approved next week Wednesday as it will hold, by God’s grace.”
Mr Makinde emphasized that the institution nor the management has any candidates amongst them, he also implored the aspirants to be of peace with themselves.
“You are all our students, we don’t have a favorite of candidate among you guys. The truth of the matter is that there is going to be a winner for each posts among you all, either we like it or not. So, I need you all to maintain peace before, during and after the election.”
Addressing voting requirements, Mr Makinde emphasized that the potential voters are the bonafide students of HND 2 and ND 2
“The voting exercise would strictly be between the current ND 2, HND 2 and Part Time stalites that have paid their first and second semester school fees for their previous year.
“I don’t know what the election site would look like or require yet, but there will be a physical voting demo on Tuesday, which will make us understand how voting would look like on that day” – he added.
Speaking on why voids are recorded on E-VOTING and the difficulties voters face while casting votes
“You see, the computer is not a fool and it does not work like magic, it is a programmed system. The computer won’t accept more than one or two votes from a single source, if you are trying to vote for like five, ten or twenty people through a single source, you will experience difficulty while trying to vote and it won’t even drop.”
“The reason the computer records void is that there are some people that will want to cast their votes for the Welfare positions alone, maybe because their candidate is aspiring for Welfare, so they will now leave over posts without casting any vote for them, those kind of votes are the ones the computer would count as void.”
He also advised the aspirants to ensure that their agents are known and trusted by them.
“Your agent must be someone you know and trust very well, because if anything bad happens, both aspirant and the agent would be held responsible. Also your agents must be an eligible voter. What I mean by that is that your agent must be someone in HND 2 or ND 2 and must have paid his or her First and Second semester school fees for HND 1 or ND 1.”
Mr Makinde, however admonished the aspirants not to involve any staff or official, as the election is strictly a student affairs.
“Anyone that is caught to have involved his HOD or any staff of official of the institution, he or she will be automatically disqualified.” he addressed the aspirants.
“Please, this election is for the students, it is their affairs, so don’t interfere or get involved in it” – he addressed the members of the Electoral Committee.
“And also, let’s see all these children as ours. I know that we all want our children to win, but please, let’s let them to their thing. We don’t know what God has in store for someone that would lose the election, it might be something bigger and better that the post he or she is aspiring for.” he implored.
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