Insecurity: Elections won't hold in 240 Polling Units

By Editor

The Independent National Electoral Commission INEC has said elections would not hold in 240 polling units, spread across 28 states, because of the wave of insecurity in some parts of the country

INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu disclosed this on Monday at a meeting with leaders of political parties.

According to him, no new registrant picked the polling units and none of the old voters sought transfers to those units, mainly on account of insecurity.

He said; "You may recall that in 2021, with your support and that of other critical stakeholders, the Commission successfully expanded voter access to polling units 25 years after the last delimitation exercise in 1996. Consequently, the number of polling units increased from 119,973 to the current figure of 176,846.

"At previous meetings, we also briefed you on our efforts to redistribute voters to the polling units in order to avoid the congestion that made voting cumbersome in many of them nationwide. This requires the redistribution of voters to new polling units in proximate locations. Where they are separated by distance, this must be done after consultation with the voters. This has been done by our State offices nationwide.

"However, there are 240 polling units without registered voters spread across 28 States and the Federal Capital Territory FCT. They range from one polling unit to 12 polling units in each State and the FCT, except Taraba and Imo States with 34 and 38 polling units respectively. No new registrants chose the polling units and no voters indicated interest to transfer to them during the last Continuous Voter Registration CVR, mainly for security reasons. This means that no elections will hold in these polling units.

"In our avowed commitment to transparency, the Commission is making available to Nigerians a comprehensive list of these polling units by name, code number and their locations by State, Local Government and Registration Area. With this development, the number of polling units where elections will hold nationwide on 25th February 2023 and 11th March 2023 is now 176,606".

He said from the feedback INEC received from its officials and accredited observers following the recent nationwide mock accreditation using the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System BVAS, it is clear that some voters could not easily identify their polling units.

"This should not happen on election day. Consequently, the Commission is advising voters to confirm the locations of their polling units through a dedicated portal on our website. In addition, all voters who have been assigned to new polling units will receive text messages from the Commission indicating their polling units.

"We have also compiled the register of such voters and our State offices will give it wide publicity, especially for those who may not have provided their telephone numbers during voter registration or those whose numbers may have changed. Voters can locate and confirm their polling units before election day by sending a regular text or WhatsApp message to a dedicated telephone number. Details of the simple procedure will be uploaded to our social media platforms shortly", he stated.

Yakubu added that the Commission is finalising the issuance of 1,642,386 identification tags for the Polling and Collation Agents nominated by the 18 political parties made up of 1,574,301 Polling Agents and 68,085 Collation Agents. 

He urged Chairmen and leaders of political parties to ensure that only agents accredited by the Commission and wearing the correct identification tags appear at polling units and collation centres during elections.

According to him, a situation where two or more agents claim to represent a political party, resulting in commotion at polling units or collation centres, is unacceptable.

"Only Identification tags issued by the Commission will be recognised on election day and violators are liable to arrest and prosecution for impersonation", he declared.

On the ongoing electioneering, Yakubu said the Commission was concerned about violent attacks on supporters of political parties across the board, resulting in the loss of life in some cases.

"Let me once again appeal to Chairman and leaders of political parties to continue to call your candidates and supporters to order. I also call on the security, intelligence and law enforcement agencies to arrest, investigate and prosecute anyone involved in violent conduct, including incendiary statements capable of inciting a breach of the peace", he said.