The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is considering the creation of additional polling units for the general convenience of voters in the country ahead of the 2023 elections.
Chairman of the Commission, Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu, stated this yesterday at the technical session on the amendment of the Electoral Act held by the Joint National Assembly Committee on INEC and Electoral Matters in Abuja.
“We need to create additional polling units, this is part of our discussion at the meeting of the commission today (yesterday). We need to expand access of voters to polling units.
The last time polling units were created was in 1996,” he told journalists at the end of the session. Earlier, the chairman of the joint session, Senator Kabiru Gaya (APC, Kano South), said that the joint committee received a total of 35 submissions and several other presentations, including that of the President of the Senate, Dr. Ahmad Lawan, and the Speaker, House of Representatives, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila.
He listed other submissions as Diaspora voting, full biometric for accreditation, electronic voting and electronic transmission of vote results, reduction on the cost of conducting elections, electronic accreditation, continuous registration of voters, improvement of election administration, etc. Presently, there are 119,973 polling units and 57,023 voting points across the country.
It would be recalled that the current structure of polling units was established in 1996 and INEC subsequently created voting points prior to the 2011 general election to enhance efficiency in election management by decongesting the units that had more than 750 registered voters.
The joint panel had, last week, held a public hearing on the amendment of the Electoral Act and proceeded on its assignment yesterday by holding a technical session with the INEC chairman and the Attorney General of Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami.
However, neither Malami nor his representative showed up at the meeting. The Chairman of the joint committees directed the secretariat to contact him on why he shunned such an important meeting.
