ABUJA — The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has announced the creation of new 56,872 polling units in various parts of the country.
The announcement was made by the Chairman of the Commission, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, on Wednesday, June 16, 2021, at the headquarters of the commission in Abuja; he added that the move was in line with the decision of INEC to expand voters’ access to polling units.
“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 said.
The INEC Chairman stated that the history of creating and expanding polling units in Nigeria has been long and complex.
The commission explained that their adequacy and accessibility, in terms of number and location across the country, were some of the challenges that it has addressed to have credible elections in the country.
According to INEC Boss, before 2010, the commission operated on a round figure of approximately 120,000 polling units.
However, Yakubu disclosed that the commission has made efforts to relocate many polling units from inappropriate places to public buildings that voters, polling agents, observers, and the media can easily access during elections.
Some of the locations that have been relocated included private residences and properties, palaces of traditional rulers, and worship centers.
The INEC Chairman attributed the establishment of voting points and voting point settlements across the states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to the several unsuccessful attempts to create additional polling units.
“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.
