By Harry Awurumibe, Editor, Abuja Bureau
In a bid to curb election malpractices in Nigeria, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has removed no fewer than 749 Polling Units (PU) from what it described as inappropriate facilities including shrines.
Also, INEC has removed PUs from eight other places such as churches, mosques, royal palaces, private premises and secluded facilities.
This cheering news was broken on Wednesday by INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu in Abuja at a meeting with Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) held at the Commission’s Conference Room.
According to him, from the initial 119, 973 Polling Units, Nigeria now has 176, 846 full fledged PUs following the conversion of existing Voting Points to Units.
Explaining how the Commission arrived at the new figure of Polling Units, Yakubu said: “As you are aware, the history of creating and expanding Polling Units in Nigeria has been long and complex.
“Their adequacy and accessibility in terms of number and location across the country were some of the challenges that had to be addressed in the interest of credible elections.
“Before 2010, the Commission operated on a round figure of approximately 120,000 Polling Units. However, a census undertaken by the Commission before the 2011 General Election arrived at the precise figure of 119,973 Polling Units. The Commission also made efforts to relocate many Polling Units from inappropriate places such as private residences and properties, palaces of traditional rulers and places of worship to public buildings accessible to voters, polling agents, observers and the media during elections”, he stated.
The INEC Chairman also revealed that:
“Following several unsuccessful attempts to create additional Polling Units despite the obvious pressure from increased number of registered voters, the Commission established Voting Points and Voting Point Settlements across the States of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) as a pragmatic response to necessity.
“The voting points were tied to the existing Polling Units and Voting Point Settlements. The number of registered voters in a Polling Unit and the Voting Point Settlement in the FCT, was used to determine their Voting Points, based on the upper and lower thresholds of 500 and 750 voters respectively”, he said.
According to him,
“These were also the limits used for the 2019 General Election. The number of new Polling Units in a State is the number of Voting Points aggregated from those Polling Units having Voting Points”.
Yakubu further explained that, “it was discovered that one Polling Unit in Lagos State had been wrongly categorized as a Voting Point and the error was corrected. With this adjustment, the actual number of approved Polling Units came to 119,974.
“As a result, the Commission arrived at the exact figure of 56,563 Voting Points in addition to 309 Voting Point Settlements in the FCT, making a total of 56,872 Voting Points”, he insisted.
Meanwhile, Yakubu disclosed that: “After wide ranging consultations with stakeholders and fieldwork by our officials, the 56,872 Voting Points and Voting Point Settlements were converted and added to the existing 119,974 Polling Units. Consequently, the Commission is glad to report that 25 years since the current Polling Units were created in 1996, the hard nut is finally and successfully cracked after several unsuccessful attempts. Nigeria now has 176,846 full-fledged Polling Units.
He also said: “after consultation with stakeholders, the Commission has successfully removed 749 Polling Units from inappropriate locations to appropriate public facilities or open spaces in line with our policy to guarantee unencumbered access to Polling Units for all
. Of this figure, 232 were removed from private properties, 145 royal palaces, 6 Mosques, 21 Churches and 9 Shrines. The remaining 336 Polling Units were relocated for various reasons which include distance, difficult terrain, congestion, communal conflict, new settlements and general insecurity.
