Inec New Polling Units Pdf Download
Lester Chiaramonte
Voters migration: While noting that the Commission created the new polling units to expand voter access to where they can vote, the INEC Chairman said many do not know where their units are. He said:
To ease the process, the Chairman said the Commission would be 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.
In 1996, Nigeria had a total of 119,974 polling units. Due to rising population, the commission tried to establish more polling units for easy access by voters, but it yielded no results. Instead, settlements and polling points were established.
Years later, in 2021, the electoral body established 56,872 polling units, thereby converting all polling points to polling units. The new 56,872 polling units and existing 119,974 centres made up 176,846 registered polling units across the country.
A total of 240 polling units have been removed from the 176,846 accredited polling units in the country. This cuts across 27 states across the six geo-political zones in the country, leaving the number of current polling units at 176,606. This means that the number of polling units in Nigeria has risen by 47 percent in 27 years.
On regional basis, the South-East has the highest number of exclusions, with 68 polling units removed. The North-East has 63; North-Central, 49; and North-West, 47. The South-South and the South-West have the least number of polling units excluded with eight and five respectively.
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 be held in these 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.
The population is increasing and the number of potential voters are also on the rise. What that means is that INEC is responding to the demographic changes and is trying to reach people at the grassroots. Someone in a remote area deserves to vote at a polling unit closest to them.
On 25 February, the observers visited polling units to observe the opening, accreditation, voting, counting and collation of results, following which they returned to Abuja for debriefing and preparation of our final report.
We note incidences of election-related violence and insecurity, some of which regrettably resulted in the loss of life and postponement of elections in some polling units. We also observed that these elections took place amidst a Naira demonetisation policy and fuel scarcity. This notwithstanding, we observed that Election Day proceeded largely peacefully. The determination, patience and resilience of all those Nigerians who turned out to vote in these elections, are to be highly commended.
Our observers noted significant delays in the opening of polls in most of the polling units observed, which impacted on pre-poll procedures. In some instances, polling officials arrived late at their designated polling units, while in other instances, there were gaps observed in the timely supply and delivery of essential materials.
At some polling units, voters were encouraged to check their names on the Voter Register before they could join the queue to avoid being turned away for being at the wrong polling unit. This is commendable.
While the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) functioned satisfactorily in most polling units, our observers reported that the BVAS was faster on facial recognition than on detecting fingerprints of the voters during the accreditation process. The requirement to first try fingerprint recognition slowed down the process, as did issues of connectivity and training. There was general trust by officials, agents and voters in the integrity of the BVAS.
It was encouraging to note that priority was accorded to pregnant and nursing mothers, persons with disabilities and elderly people. INEC is also to be commended for its efforts at fostering greater inclusion, especially for persons with disabilities, by providing assistive devices at polling units, including braille ballot guides and magnifying glasses.
The Group observed the presence of security officials at most polling units. They were professional, unobtrusive, carried out their duties diligently, and respected the right of voters to cast their ballots.
Some polling units observed were in open spaces while others were in tents and indoors, in public buildings. Therefore, the layout varied from polling unit to polling unit. For the most part, the secrecy of the ballot was assured, though we noted in some cases that the positioning of polling booths potentially compromised secrecy. In a number of polling stations, voters could have benefitted from more voter education on the folding of ballot papers, as some voters were unintentionally exposing their vote on their ballot papers.
Due to the late start, there were still long queues at some polling units at the time of the closing of the polls. However, it was observed that those who were in the queue at 2:30 pm when the polls closed, were allowed to vote.
Though various polling units experienced significant delays in closing due to their late openings, we found that the management of closing and count procedures varied in consistency. One of the marked challenges we noted was the fact that, as voting hours were extended, the close and count had to take place in the dark in many cases. It was noted that, at some polling units, there was no proper lighting to facilitate counting at night. We note that lamps were not provided to polling staff to assist them in carrying out their crucial duties at this phase of the process.
In Bayelsa State, there are only two polling units where voting will not take place because of no registered voters, according to INEC. The two polling units are in Ekeremor and Southern Ijaw local government areas.
Following the Electoral Act 2022, INEC has consistently maintained that no registered voter will be allowed to vote at a polling unit different from where they had registered; hence such a post could confuse the electorate, causing distrust in the electoral body as well as voter apathy.
In June 2021, INEC created an additional 56,872 Polling Units, bringing the total number of Polling Units in Nigeria to 176,974. This was done to accommodate increasing numbers of registered voters and prevent overcrowding at polling units on election days.
Mr Musa explained that the Commission, in line with Section 40 (2) of the Electoral Act 2022, decided to move some registered voters from polling units with registered voters above 750 to other polling units with fewer registered voters.
He clarified that the polling units where they are being moved to are within the same constituency as the previous ones. Mr Musa stated that the measure will not disenfranchise affected registered voters as they will be duly informed and directed to the new polling units where their names were moved to.
He explained further that the list of names of the affected registered voters would be pasted at the wards for them to confirm their polling units before Election Day. Mr Musa added that there would be adequate publicity in the media to ensure that the information reaches the persons concerned and other stakeholders.
This development was also confirmed in a post by INEC on its verified Twitter handle where it assured affected registered voters that they would be duly informed by its State Offices on the polling units assigned to them. The electoral body also announced that elections would not be held in 240 polling units across the country because no voter registered or took transfer there due to insecurity.
Our verification revealed that although the Independent National Electoral Commission is allotting new polling units to some electorates, it is not to disenfranchise them but to ensure that the newly created polling units do not record zero votes and overcrowding is avoided on Election Day. This is to enable registered voters to perform their civic duty with ease.
Yes, I did not want to waste my vote. I voted to abstain. I voted not to vote. But recently I have been following politics, campaigns and voting processes in the US. The heated debates over domestic and foreign policies. Theirs is not perfect in any way. I have always wished that politics in Nigeria could mature and even become more about issues, economy, policies, and state building, not about ethnicity or religion. I have always wished that Nigerians would politically grow up and begin to focus on critical issues. I wished that Nigerians understood the difference between citizens and ethnizens, state and ethnic nationalities, democracy and theocracy or ethnocracy. Even the many so called educated Nigerians speak as ethnizens not citizens of the Nigerian state. I share WhatsApp and other social media platforms with many of them. And I shudder at how they think and reason especially when it comes to politics. They literally suspend their education and intellection. In Nigeria, citizenship is on the surface, and falls off any time there is an election or political discussions. Politicians who win elections are those who could out rig others. An election is not about the character or competence of the candidates. Politics is about ethnoreligious affiliation, mobilization, domination, and manipulation. What happens at the polling unit does not count, It does not matter at all. Voting is a facade for the crude and primordial acquisition of power. What matters is what happens after the votes had been cast; what happens at the collation centers. So it is the collation, not the casting of votes, the rigging structure, not the people, that largely determines the winner of elections in Nigeria.
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