The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has declared that elections would not hold in 240 polling units across 28 States and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu who disclosed this after a meeting with the leaders of political parties on Monday in Abuja, said, they range from one polling unit to 12 polling units in each State and the FCT, except Taraba & Imo States with 34 and 38 polling units respectively.
Prof. Yakubu 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. This means that no elections will hold in these polling units”.
The INEC boss said, with the support of the political parties 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”.
“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.
“Hard copies of the list are included in your folders for this meeting. Above all, Nigerians deserve the right to know the locations of these polling units”, he said.
Yakubu said, all voters who have been assigned to new polling units would 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 said.
The INEC Chairman said, the Commission was 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 therfore, 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.
“Only Identification tags issued by the Commission will be recognised on election day and violators are liable to arrest and prosecution for impersonation.
“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.
