Expanding access to polling units panacea to voters apathy – INEC

Tunde Opalana, Abuja

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has resolved to expand voters access to pilling units as a mean of increasing turn out of voters during future elections in the country.

Chairman of the Commission, Prof Mahmood Yakubu gave this indication on Friday at the first consultative meeting with political parties for the year 2021 held at INEC headquarters in Abuja.

He said the decision by the commission was borne out of the resolution reached at the last tripartite meeting of political parties, INEC and all stakeholders on concern about low voter turnout in elections in Nigeria.

Expanding polling units, he said, will decongest polling centres particularly in the current era of Covid -19 pandemic.

The Chairman said “after reviewing the situation, it was agreed that political parties, INEC and all stakeholders need to do more in the areas of voter and civic education, voter mobilisation and inclusivity.

“After the meeting, the Commission critically appraised the situation. In addition to other factors highlighted by political parties and other stakeholders, the Commission is of the firm belief that expanding voter access to polling units in Nigeria is crucial to voter turnout in elections.

“Experience has shown that enhanced voter access to polling units increases turnout in elections. Not surprisingly, many countries expand access to polling units with every fresh registration of voters while others do so routinely or before every general election.

“Increase in voter population, emergence of new settlements, urbanisation, distance to existing polling units, difficult terrain and other factors require constant review to give the voter a pleasant experience on Election Day.

“Above all, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is necessary to decongest polling units to minimise overcrowding and reduce the long distances voters travel often in overcrowded means of transport in order to vote during elections”.

According to Yakubu, the last time polling units were established was 25 years ago in 1996 by the defunct National Electoral Commission of Nigeria (NECON) during which there were 120,000 polling units to serve a projected population of about 50 million voters.

“Today, the number of registered voters is 84,004,084 and is set to rise after we resume Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) ahead of the 2023 General Election.

Yet, the number of polling units remains static. In fact, the biggest category of registered voters on our data base (aged 18 to 25 years) were not even born when the current polling units were established a quarter of a century ago.

“Certainly, the Commission tried unsuccessfully to expand voter access to polling units in 2007, 2014 and before the 2019 General Election. However, these attempts were handled administratively.

They also came too close to General Elections. Consequently, the Commission’s intention was not properly communicated and therefore misunderstood and politicised.

“Learning from previous experience, the Commission has now decided to engage with Nigerians by consulting widely.

Columnist: Mahmood Yakubu: The task ahead

We have worked hard in the last two months and produced a Discussion Paper entitled “The State of Voter Access to Polling Units in Nigeria”, prepared satellite imageries of the location of polling units across the country as well as pictures and videos to demonstrate the difficulties faced by voters on Election Day.

“The hard and soft copies of the Discussion Paper is being widely shared and will be uploaded on the Commission’s website and social media platforms latest by Monday 8th February 2021”, he said..

He disclosed that at the end of each of the series of engagements which commenced with leaders of political parties, there will be a presentation followed by discussion.

By doing so, he said INEC will communicate the Commission’s intention to Nigerians and invite input from citizens across the board on how to tackle the problem of voter access to polling units in the country and hopefully establish the framework for subsequent seamless adjustments as the need arises.

“This is how it is done in virtually all democracies around the world. I am confident that by working together we will make history by finally solving this 25-year old problem of enhancing access to polling units in Nigeria.

The Nigerian voter in particular and our democracy in general will be the biggest beneficiaries of increased access to polling units”, added Yakubu.