[FILES] INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu. Photo; TWITTER/INECNIGERIA
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says it plans harmonise reports from states on Polling Units (PUs) expansion, to ensure that they are in conformity with its guidelines. INEC National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Mr Festus Okoye, disclosed this when he spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Friday. Okoye said the commission has concluded its verification relating to the expansion and relocation of PUs across the country. He said that INEC was operating in tandem with its timelines for the conversion of voting points to polling units in the country.
By ibrahim HassanWuyo
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has created additional 2910 voting points in kaduna State so as to expand and enhance voters access to pulling units in 2023 elections.
National Commissioner INEC ,Mall Mohammed Kudu Haruna said this in Kaduna at an election stakeholders forum meeting on expansion, conversion of voting points to polling units and others issues at the weekend.
Malam Haruna said the core essence of the expansion was to ensure voters access to polling units to excercise their civic right smoothly,adding that voters access to polling units had declined in Nigeria over the years for several reasons which bordered on not just growing population but also the number of polling units.
Chuks Okocha in Abuja
There are indications that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) may approve up to 176,996 polling centres across the 36 states of the country and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) as part of the ongoing expansion and verification of polling centres ahead of the 2023 general election.
But the adjustments of the lower and upper thresholds for voting points, according to INEC, would be from 750 and 1000, to 500 and 750.
The implication is that INEC would be creating additional 57,023 polling units nationwide, although the breakdown is not known yet.
A memo dated April 20, 2021 was said to have backed the development. The document with reference number INEC/DE/No:72/2021 and titled: “Decision Extraction on the Amendment of the Threshold for the Conversion of Voting Points to Polling Units,” reads in part: “The Commission at its meeting held on Tuesday, April 20, 2021, deliberated on the above subject and approved as follows: The adjustmen
Views: Visits 6 By Abdulmumin Murtala – Kano The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC has announced plans to convert voting points into full fledge Polling Units across the country. This was stated by Barr Festus Okoye, National Commissioner during a stakeholders meeting on expanding voter access to polling units, in Kano on Saturday. “In 1996, across Nigeria, there were 119,973 polling units when there was 50 million registered voters. Now that there are 87 million registered voters in the country, there is need to exp and and establish new polling units across the country. “The Commission has in the last three electoral cycles made use of Voting Points and Voting Points Settlements as interim solutions for declaring voter access to Polling Units. These are well known by the stakeholders and accepted by voters. Consequently converting them to full fledged Polling Units is a cost effective and timely way of addressing the problem.