There will be no elections in 240 polling units in the world’s most populous black country- Nigeria in February and March 2023.
The country’s electoral umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), broke the news to Confiance News via a press statement on Monday.
According to the statement, the chairman of INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu disclosed this on Monday at a meeting with leaders of political parties.
He said, “There are 240 polling units without registered voters spread across 28 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). They range from one polling unit to 12 polling units in each state and FCT, except Taraba and Imo states with 34 and 38 polling units respectively.
“No new registrant chose the polling units and no voter indicated interest to transfer to them during the last Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) mainly for security reasons. This means that no election would be held in these polling units.”
Consequently, Yakubu added that elections will only hold in 176,606 polling units on February 25, 2023 and March 11, 2023 across the country.
He, however, advised voters who could not identify their polling units to visit their website for details.
The INEC chairman said, “Closely related to the distribution of voters is the identification of polling units. From the feedback we received from our officials and accredited observers following the recent nationwide mock accreditation using the BVAS, it is clear that some voters could not easily identify their polling units. This should not happen on election day. Consequently, the Commission is advising voters to confirm the locations of their polling units through a dedicated portal on our website.
“In addition, all voters who have been assigned to new polling units will receive text messages from the Commission indicating their polling units. We have also compiled the register of such voters and our State offices will give it wide publicity, especially for those who may not have provided their telephone numbers during voter registration or those whose numbers may have changed. Voters can locate and confirm their polling units before election day by sending a regular text or WhatsApp message to a dedicated telephone number. Details of the simple procedure will be uploaded to our social media platforms.
