No fewer than 40,000 ad hoc staff would be deployed by the Independent National Electoral Commission for the November 11, 2023 governorship polls in Imo, Bayelsa, and Kogi states, The PUNCH gathered on Thursday.

The tenure of the incumbent Governor of Imo State will end on January 14, 2024, while those of Kogi and Bayelsa states end on January 26, 2024, and February 13, 2024, respectively.

In 2019, the commission deployed about 24,000 ad hoc staff for the Kogi and Bayelsa governorship elections on November 16.

Ahead of the off-cycle elections in November, INEC had on August 31 opened its portal for the recruitment of ad hoc staff.

Efforts to get the number of ad hoc staff the commission would deploy proved abortive.

However, according to the commission, Bayelsa state has 2,244 polling units; Kogi state has 3,508 polling units and Imo State has 4,758 polling units.

With 10,510 polling units in the three states; each unit would be assigned one presiding officer and three assistant presiding officers; making a total of 42,040 ad hoc to be deployed.

Aside from the POs and the APOs, Supervisory Presiding Officers would be deployed to man various polling units.

INEC said that all non-sensitive materials had been sent to the three states.

The Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman, Rotimi Oyekanmi, told our correspondent, “We have supplied all the non-sensitive materials needed for the elections and they are now being batched for the various Registration Areas in the states.”

Also, the collection of Permanent Voter Cards commenced September 11, 2023, and will end October 9, 2023.