The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Wednesday announced the creation of additional 56,872 polling units across the country, bringing the total number from 119,974 to 176,846.

The chairman of INEC, Prof Mahmood Yakubu disclosed this during the commission’s regular meeting with resident electoral commissioners in Abuja.

According to Yakubu, the action was the outcome of consultation and fieldwork leading to the conversion of 56,563 voting points and 309 voting point settlements to polling units.

He said 749 polling units were relocated from residences, churches, palaces, mosques, shrines to appropriate public facilities or open spaces in line with the commission’s policy to guarantee unencumbered access to polling units for all voters.

Of the polling units that were relocated, he said 232 were removed from private properties, 145 from royal palaces, six from mosques, 21 from churches and nine from shrines.

He also stated the remaining 336 polling units were relocated for various reasons which included distance, difficult terrain, congestion, communal conflict, new settlements and general insecurity.

He added: “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.”

“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. 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.

“Furthermore, 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.”

Yakubu also announced dates for the Ekiti and Osun States governorship elections.

He said the two off-season governorship elections are slated for Saturday June 18, 2022 in Ekiti State and Saturday, July 16, 2022 in Osun State.

“In the sequence of off-season elections, the Ekiti and Osun state governorship elections are holding next year. In keeping with our policy of announcing the dates of elections in advance to enable early and effective preparations by all concerned, the commission has approved that the Ekiti State governorship election will hold on Saturday 18th June 2022 while the Osun State governorship election will hold one month later on Saturday 16th July 2022.

“The detailed timetable and schedule of activities for the two elections have been uploaded on the commission’s website and social media platforms. We implore political parties and aspirants to ensure rancour-free primaries and thereafter conduct peaceful electioneering campaigns,” he said.

NewsGazette