The Independent National Electoral Commission has created more 57,023 voting points across the country ahead of the forthcoming presidential election.
INEC revealed that the new points are necessary to cater to the large number of voters which has now reached 84 million.
INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu had last month said, “On polling units, the commission wishes to assure the media that there is no change in the number of polling units and voting points used for the 2015 general elections and the 2016 Area Council elections in the FCT.
“Any insinuation that new polling units, voting points or voting points are being created by the commission is utterly baseless and should be disregarded.”
However, the Commission realised learnt that the move had become necessary considering the 15 million increase in number of voters, against the 2015 figures.
The additional voting points are also expected to ensure that voting is done in record time, to give enough time for quick collation of results.
Also, while the 2015 Presidential election had 14 candidates, 72 candidates are contesting the 2019 election.
According to a national commissioner at INEC said, “We have established 57,023 across the country because the number of voters has increased. We are creating more voting points and not more polling units.”
The commissioner further clarified that a voting point is created when a particular polling unit has more than 500 registered voters.
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He said, “A voting point is derived from a polling unit. When a polling unit has more than 500 registered voters, a voting point can be carved out of it and set aside but it is not completely independent. Ideally, a polling unit should not have more than 750 voters.”
Answering questions on why INEC eventually decided to create more voting points, the commissioner said, “Once a polling unit has more than 750 voters, it is best to devolve a new voting point out of it because if the entire 750 turn up for election, they will not be able to complete accreditation and voting by 2pm.
“In 2015, there were 69 million voters but now we have 84 million. So, that accounts for the increase in the number of voting points.
“As I said, these voting points are like a sub-polling unit. For instance, if Gaskiya Primary School is a polling unit but has 1, 200 registered voters, we can create a voting point out of that unit, to make it two to allow for a better and faster voting process. So, at the end, all the results from that unit would be collated as one.”
The INEC National Commissioner for Voter Education and Publicity, Mr Festus Okoye, also confirmed the development, noting that it had become necessary due to the large number of voters.
Okoye said, “We have created more because the number of voters has risen to 84 million. INEC regulation 3c states that voting points are created out of polling units based on multiples of 500 and a maximum of 750 registered voters or as may otherwise be determined by the commission.
“We cannot use the 2015 template because the total number of registered voters was 69 million but now it is 84 million. If we use the same template, it means we have not learnt any lessons at all.”