The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has allotted additional 1,235 polling units to Imo State, this follows an adjustment of existing polling units from 3,523 to 4,758 polling units.
Briefing journalists in Owerri, the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), in Imo, Professor Francis Ezeonu, said that the adjustment was based on a national threshold of 500 to 750.
He said that the whole effort was geared towards expanding voter access to polling units in Nigeria.
Ezeonu said that over the years, there had been attempts by the Commission to create additional polling units to cater to the interest of new settlements and areas with unmanageable voters population.
He explained that in 2011, the Commission opted to create voting points and voting settlements to address the issue of overcrowding during elections and new settlements not served by existing polling units.
Ezeonu said the 1,235 polling units were achieved by converting existing voting points and voting point settlements into full polling units.
He added that the commission also relocated, where necessary, new or existing polling units to places where they are close or more accessible to voters and unserved areas.
He said they equally decongested existing polling units by reducing the number of voters per polling unit.
The Imo REC said the additional polling units were in line with the expectation of the law which provided that “the Commission establish a sufficient number of polling units in each Registration Area and allot voters to such polling units.”
According to him, INEC had conducted five general elections using the same set and number of polling units established by the defunct National Electoral Commission since 1996 and used in 1999.
Ezeonu said the commission would continue to improve the quality of access to electoral services provided to Nigerian voters by including better access at polling units for persons with disabilities.
He said, “The commission has also decided to improve the health and safety conditions at polling units during elections in order to comply with COVID-19 protocols as well as address declining voter turnout at elections due to lack of access to polling units,”.
According to him, local government area electoral officers had undertaken a painstaking exercise of identifying suitable public places for locating the new polling units and geo-referenced them using Global Positioning System(GPS) coordinates.
Our correspondent reports that the Imo REC later presented the local government areas and the number of polling units assigned to each.
Ezeonu hinted that the commission was undertaking a verification exercise after which it would compile the new polling units, publish their names and delineation data before the resumption of continuous voters exercise in June.
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