MON. 13 FEB, 2023-theGBJournal| The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, informed leaders of political parties and stakeholders today, that 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,’’ the INEC Chairman said.
The INEC boss made the revelation during a meeting he had with the leaders to discus matters relating to the upcoming 2023 general election.
The INEC Chairman at the start of the meeting noted that in 2021, the Commission, with the support of political parties and other stakeholders, successfully expanded voter access to polling units 25 years after the last delimitation exercise in 1999.
Consequently, the number of polling units increased from 119,073 to the current figure of 176,846. The increase, the INEC Chairman said, required the redistribution of voters to new polling units in proximate locations.
Which means, where there are separated by distance, this must be done after consultation with the voters.
‘’This has been done by our State offices nationwide.’’ Prof. Mahmood said.
Meanwhile, after the expansion of the polling units, ‘’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,’’ INEC explained.
‘’This means that no elections will hold in these polling units.’’
INEC said, 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.’’
The Commission said the soft copy of the list has been uploaded to its website and social media platforms while the hard copies have been made available to the leaders of the political parties.
Closely related to the distribution of voters is the identification of polling units.
INEC Chairman said from the feedback it received from its officials and accredited observers following the recent nationwide mock accreditation using the 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.’’
The Commission is also 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.
The INEC Chairman urged the 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.
‘’A situation where two or more agents claim to represent a political party, resulting in commotion at polling units or collation centres, is unacceptable,’’ he warned, adding that ‘’only Identification tags issued by the Commission will be recognised on election day and violators are liable to arrest and prosecution for impersonation.’’
Turning to the ongoing electioneering campaigns, the Commission says it is concerned about violent attacks on supporters of political parties across the board, resulting in the loss of life in some cases.
Prof. Mahmood appealed to Chairman and leaders of political parties to continue to call their 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 added.
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