Just In: Election will not hold in 240 polling units – INEC

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said that voting would not hold in 240 polling units during the forthcoming general elections.

The INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, disclosed this during a meeting with political parties on Monday, February 13.

According to him, “Let me therefore start with the issue of polling units. 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 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, mainly for security reasons. This means that no elections will hold in these polling units.”