The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has revealed reasons why it is creating more polling units throughout the states of the country.
Among other things, the new polling units would serve as a means of decongesting already existing ones which are usually over crowded on election days.
Dismissing the rumour that the additional polling units were created with the aim of foisting the dominance of one section of the country over the others for political advantage, Professor Attahiru Jega, the INEC chairman, revealed that his organisation’s decision to re-configure the structure of polling units as well as create additional ones is driven by the aspiration as Nigerians, to reform and improve upon the electoral process for free, fair, peaceful and credible elections in 2015 and beyond.
Apart from decongesting existing polling units, Jega listed five specific reasons for the restructuring.
He said: “The basic aim of the exercise we are presently undertaking is to ease the access of voters to the ballot box in the 2015 general elections and beyond, by locating PUs more effectively within commuting distances of voters, given that movement is usually restricted on Election Day.
“Relocating the PUs from “in-front of” private houses, and such other unsuitable places, to public buildings or where this is not possible, to public open spaces where tents can be provided;
“Locating the PUs inside classrooms or such other suitable enclosures, in line with international best practices;
“Splitting large PUs such that they have on average of 500 registered voters and creating additional PUs to cater for the splitting of large polling units as well as new settlements not serviced by any existing PU.”
At a press conference held on Wednesday, Jega maintained that the restructuring is long overdue, pointing out that the current number of PU were mapped out in 1996 and handed down to INEC by its defunct predecessor National Electoral Commission of Nigeria (NECON), which created 120,000 polling units and 8,809 wards which have been used for the 1999, 2003, 2007, and 2011 general elections.
“From 1996 to date, there has been an exponential growth in Nigeria’s population; and there have been severe demographic shifts resulting from new settlements in major urban areas,” Jega pointed out.
For example, in 1996 when the current polling unit structure was established, the estimated population of the country was about 110m. In 2006, after a national population census, the population was 140m. In 2011, when the voters’ registration was undertaken, the population was estimated to be about 160m. Today the population is estimated to be around 175m, representing nearly 60 percent rise in the population since 1996.
As such, he explained that the number of PU created then, vis-à-vis the country’s population is no longer effective.
Jega then announced that an additional 30,027 polling units are being created to address the issue of crowd clusters under the present structure. He revealed that the though the polling booths would not be distributed equally in all the states, the distribution would not be of any undue advantage to any region.
He also explained the methodology of the distribution, and how INEC aims to check the plague of ghost registrant and other electoral frauds in the coming election.
