Twelve days to the general elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said election will not hold in 240 polling units.
The nation’s electoral body noted that the 240 polling units without registered voters spread across 28 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The chairman, INEC, who disclosed this at meeting with political parties in Abuja on Monday, explained that 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.
He said “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 2021, with the support of parties and other critical stakeholders, the Commission successfully expanded voter access to polling units 25 years after the last delimitation exercise in 1996.
With that action, 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 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,” he said.
He said in its avowed commitment to transparency, the Commission is making available to Nigerians a comprehensive list of the polling units by name, code number, and their locations by State, Local Government and Registration Area.
With this development, he said the number of polling units where elections will hold nationwide on 25th February 2023 and 11th March 2023 is now 176,606.
