Professor Mahmood Yakubu, Chairman of the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC), has revealed that elections would not hold at the 34 polling units in Taraba State.
Yakubu disclosed this when he met with leaders of political parties today to discuss matters relating to the upcoming elections slated to hold on February 25 and March 11.
He noted that there are 240 polling units without registered voters spread across 28 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) whereas Taraba and Imo States have 34 and 38 polling units respectively.
JUST IN: INEC Says Election Will Not Hold in 240 Polling Units
“At previous meetings, we also briefed you on our efforts to redistribute voters to the polling units in order to avoid the congestion that made voting cumbersome in many of them nationwide.
“This requires the redistribution of voters to new polling units in proximate locations. Where they are separated by distance, this must be done after consultation with the voters. This has been done by our State offices nationwide.
“However, there are 240 polling units without registered voters spread across 28 state including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). They range from one to 12 polling units in each state and the FCT, except Taraba and Imo states with 34 and 38 polling units respectively,” he said.
“No new registrants chose the polling units and no voters indicated interest to transfer to them during the last Continuous Voter Registration (CVR), mainly for security reasons. This means that no elections will hold in these polling units,” he added.
The INEC Chairman explained that the Commission has successfully expanded voter access to polling units 25 years after the last delimitation exercise in 1996, increasing from 119,973 to 176,846.
“With this development, the number of polling units where elections will hold nationwide on 25th February and 11th March is now 176,606,” said Yakubu.
Yakubu stated that based on the recent nationwide mock accreditation using the BVAS, it is clear that some voters could not easily identify their polling units, and therefore, are advised to confirm their locations through a dedicated portal on the commission’s website, as according to him, voters assigned to new polling units will receive text messages from the Commission indicating their polling units.
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Yakubu urged the leaders of political parties to ensure that only agents accredited by the commission and wearing the correct identification tags appear at polling units and collation centres during elections and defaulting parties would not be accepted.
He appealed to them to continue to calling on their respective candidates and supporters to order, urging the security agents to arrest anyone involved in violent conduct.
