Confirm your polling units - INEC Chair writes Nigerians

By Editor

The Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu has written Nigerians ahead of next Saturday Presidential and National Assembly Elections, urging them to confirm their polling units before election day.

In the letter dated February 17, Yakubu noted that as part of the commission's effort to make voting more credible and result management, more transparent, it introduced a number of innovations facilitated by technology.

"Equally, we expanded voter access to Polling Units by establishing 56,872 new ones, in order to give Nigerians a more pleasant experience on Election Day. As have said repeatedly, the right to vote can only be exercised where there is a place to vote.

"Arising from the recent mock accreditation exercise nationwide using the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), some voters turned up at the wrong polling units. This happened both in cases where voters have been migrated to other polling units by the Commission and even where they voluntarily chose new voting locations during the last Continuous Voter Registration (CVR). We believe that there could be other voters in the same situation. This challenge must be addressed so that it does not happen on Election Day", he stated.

Accordingly, Yakubu said in order to ease the process, the Commission is sending bulk phone text messages (SMS) to citizens voting in new polling units.

"Similarly, the register of such voters for each State has been sent to the Resident Electoral Commissioners for publicity, particularly through messages in local languages.

"Furthermore, the Commission is offering two unique ways by which all voters can locate and confirm their Polling Units before Election Day. This can be done by sending a normal text message or by simply visiting our website.

"The detailed procedure is attached to this message and also uploaded to our website and social media platforms. You can also send inquiries to our various public outreach platforms shown in the attached procedure", he added.