The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, on Friday met with the 18 political parties executives to deliberate on proposal for the creation of more polling units across the country.
Chairman of the commission, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu said the meeting is to intimate stakeholders on the need to increased number of voter participation in elections by increasing voter access.
The meeting is the first quarterly consultative forum with stakeholders in 2021 exactly this time last year, the INEC Chairman Professor Mahmood Yakubu announced plans to create additional polling units across the country, ahead of 2023 general elections.
With about 24 months to the next presidential election in Nigeria, INEC met with political parties.
There are currently 119,973 polling units and 57,023 voting points across the country.
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The current structure of polling units was established in 1996 and INEC subsequently created voting points prior to the 2011 general elections to enhance efficiency in election management by decongesting polling units that had more than 750 registered voters.
In august 2014, inec under the leadership of Prof. Attahiru Jega sought to create 30,027 additional polling units ahead of the 2015 general elections, with 21,615 in the north and 8,412 in the southern part of the country but it attracted controversy which led to its suspension by the commission.
The Prof Mahmood Yakubu led INEC has come up with the same idea again.
For the current INEC leadership, Nigeria’s rapidly growing population, changing demography, as well as, registration of new voters, creation of new settlements, including camps for Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs, and the need to decongest crowded polling units in urban areas, are enough reasons to create more polling units.
( Editor: Omor Bazuaye)
