Grace Okon
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has assured electorates of electoral transperency, that election would not hold in polling units without registered voter.
The Chairman, INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, while speaking at the FCT Expanded Stakeholders Security meeting organised by the FCT Administration in Abuja.He announced that 593 polling units in Federal Capital Territory have no registered voters.
According to him, 1,328 polling units in the territory have a maximum of 50 voters, while 546 others have more than 1,000 registered voters.
Prof Yakubu said that INEC had decided that election would not hold in polling units without registered voters.
He added that no material was produced for those units and no personnel would be deployed to them.
Prof Yakubu, however, said that voting would take place in all the other polling units, noting that for congested polling units, INEC would deploy more BVAS (Card Reader) to ensure speedy accreditation of voters.
“For transparency, the commission is making available hard copies of the details locations of these polling units to all stakeholders at this meeting, soft copies have also been uploaded to our website. By doing so, we want to achieve two objectives“First is to ensure that voters in the FCT and indeed all Nigerians are aware of these polling units and the arrangements made for them on election day.
“Secondly, to seek the support of all stakeholders to ensure that these polling units are populated ahead of the 2023 general election.
“We need the support of especially the traditional, community and religious leaders in this regard,’’ hecsaid.Yakubu, who reiterated the importance of peace towards successful conduct of the area council election, assured that INEC would protect the integrity of the process.
“Our eyes are on all our officials, be they ad hoc or regular staff, to ensure that they strictly abide by the rules. All parties, candidates and their supporters should do the same,’’ he said.
Furthermore, the Chairman commended the conduct of the judiciary adding that he was satisfied the Commission has nothing to worry about over pending litigations, arising from the nomination of candidates and party primaries.
“The commission is happy with the behaviour of parties and candidates in the FCT. So far, there are no adverse reports of clashes between supporters of different parties and not many incidents of hate or inciting speeches as they canvass for votes. I commend the stakeholders for their advocacy for peaceful elections.
He stated that INEC would deploy additional staff to the crowded units, as the commission had accepted the suggestion by security agencies for deployment of additional personnel to ensure peace and order.
Earlier speaking, the FCT Minister, Malam Muhammad Bello, said that the meeting which had in attendance all the 17 graded chiefs in the territory, was aimed at preparing ground for successful conduct of the February 12 FCT Area Council Election.
