Connect with us

Politics

INEC to begin polling units’ expansion in Nigeria

Published

on

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will begin the conversion of existing voting points to full-fledged Pulling Units in a few weeks.

The INEC National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, disclosed this to journalists on Wednesday in Abuja.

He said one of the programmes the commission had mapped out ahead of the 2023 general elections was the expansion of voter access to polling units.

According to him, INEC conducted the 2019 general election with over 57,000 voting points tied to the mother voting units due to inadequate polling units.

He said the body had been working towards converting the voting points into full-fledged polling units and takes them to underserved areas.

Okoye told journalists the commission had consulted a broad spectrum of Nigerians who endorsed the proposal.

READ ALSO: INEC solicits support for creation of more polling units

He revealed that INEC would also consult stakeholders at the grassroots especially at local governments and wards levels, where the exercise would take place.

The stakeholders are the media, political parties, civil society groups, and organisations, professional groups and labour unions among others.

Okoye said: “We have also consulted with the National Economic Council under the leadership of the Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the plan was endorsed.

“We have also made presentation to the Federal Executive Council, which has also endorsed what we intend to do.

“So, we have almost concluded with the consultations. The moment we are done with the consultation in the next weeks or so, we will move to implementation.”

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now