The Independent National Electoral Commission ( INEC), says elections will not hold in 240 Polling Units without registered voters spread across the 28 States and the Federal Capital Territory – FCT, where voting will not take place during the 25th February Presidential/ National Assembly and 11th March 2023 Governorship/ State House of Assembly Elections. The polling units where elections will not hold are from one in Edo, Kwara, Zamfara, Rivers States and the FCT, Taraba has 34 units and Imo State with 38 units is the highest. The INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu made this disclosure at a regular consultative meeting with leaders of the 18 Registered Political Parties yesterday in Abuja ahead of the elections. Yakubu recalled that the Commission had made efforts to redistribute voters to polling units in order to avoid congestion that made voting cumbersome. According to him, this requires the redistribution of voters to new polling units in appropriate locations. No new registrants chose the polling units and no voters indicated interest to transfer to them during the last Continuous Voters Registration ( CVR ), mainly for security reasons. This means that no elections will hold in this polling units, he said. The INEC Chairman further stated that the Commission is finalising the issuance of 1, 643, 386 Identification tags for the Polling agents nominated by the 18 Political Parties made up of 1, 574, 301 Polling Agents and 68, 085 Collation Centre during the elections. He urged the Chairman and leaders of the 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 the elections. A situation where two or more agents claiming to represent a political party which resulted to chaos either at the polling units or collation centres will not be accepted as only Identification tags issued by the Commission will be recognised on election day. Violators, he said are liable to arrest and prosecution for impersonation. He concluded that with the exclusion of the 240 Polling Units, election will take place in about 176, 606 Polling Units across the Country.
ELECTIONS WILL NOT HOLDS IN 240 POLLING UNITS ACROSS THE COUNTRY WITH NO REGISTER VOTERS – BY INEC
