INEC Plans Redistribution of Voters to New Polling Units

Emameh Gabriel and Udora Orizu

Ahead of 2023 general elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) yesterday disclosed that it was working out plan to redistribute eligible voters to new polling units across the country.

Speaking at a two-day workshop organised by Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, for journalists in Abuja, the Chairman, Information and Voters Education Committee, INEC, Festus Okoye, said the idea was designed to decongest existing polling units and ensure balanced distribution of voters in all the voting centres in the country.

Okoye who spoke on the topic: ‘INEC and Electoral Act 2022: Operational Challenges and Emerging Risks,’ explained that out of the 176, 846 existing polling units, some of the newly created polling units have zero voters while others have up to 5000 registered voters, hence the need for decongestion to ensure a seamless voting process in the future.

He said: “In 2021, the Commission created 56,827 additional polling units in Nigeria to 176, 846. Populating the newly created polling units is a huge challenge. The Commission is working hard to balance these polling units.

Meanwhile the Commission has expressed skepticism over the possibility of the increasing number of internally displaced persons to vote in the next general elections.

Okoye said although the 2023 general election would come with challenges, the Commission was determined to surmount it in order to conduct free, fair, credible and elections.

But he pointed out that the growing insecurity in some parts of the country and increasing number of IDPs would pose a biggest challenge to the conduct of the 2023 general elections.

According to him, so many, “IDPs are in the houses of their friends and relatives and have lost their PVCs and it’s next to impossibility to recreate their polling units.

“This is because Section 47(1) of the Electoral Act clearly provides that a person intending to vote in an election shall present himself with his PVC to the presiding officer for accreditation at the polling unit in the constituency in which his name is registered.”

He explained that the persons (IDPs) were no longer in their constituencies and could no longer access their polling units, noting that while it’s easy to recreate constituencies and polling units in clustered camps of IDPs, it was next to impossibility to do so for persons staying in scattered locations.

Okoye, however assured that the Commission would print new Permanent Voter’s Cards (PVCs) for those affected by crisis, depending on their locations and proximity to their states and federal constituencies, citing Section 24(1) which provides that “In the event of an emergency affecting an election, the Commission shall, as far as practicable, ensure that persons displaced as a result of the emergency are not disenfranchised”.