The Ondo State Residents Electoral Commissioner, (REC) Dr Rufus Akeju, on Friday, disclosed that 924 additional polling units had been created across the 18 local government areas of the state by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Akeju who stated this during a stakeholders’ meeting for the implementation of the expansion of voter access to polling units in Nigeria said with the development, the number of polling units in the states is now 3,933.
According to him, the commission arrived at the figure by converting existing Voting Points that meets the minimum threshold of 750 or a maximum of 1000 voters per polling units, saying the increased polling units would be available for 1,822,346 voting population.
Akeju explained that the Polling Points were created ahead of the 2015 general elections to help decongest large polling units.
He said the commission was bombarded with letters from voters complaining of being disenfranchised because polling units were far from their settlements.
The Ondo REC attributed the progressives declined in voters turnout in the last four electoral cycles to the apathy from voters who had to trek a long distance to access their polling units.
He said, “The results from the field works are currently undergoing verification and the new polling units in their locations will be reflected in the forthcoming Continuous Voter Registration exercise.
“We have been receiving letters for the past 25 years for inadequacies of polling units. People trek long distances and some are afraid of likely electoral violence.”
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