By Gift Olivia Samuel, The Sight News
ABUJA: As part of its national engagement and consultations with stakeholders on the need to expand voter access to Polling Units in Nigeria, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Friday, February 5, 2021, met with Political Parties in Abuja.
The meeting which was attended by the Chairmen and/or Secretaries of 17 political parties, Chairman of INEC, National Commissioners, Resident Electoral Commissioners, who joined the meeting virtually, as well as the Commission’s Secretary and Directors, was chaired by the Chairman of INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu.
In his remarks, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu disclosed that the Commission is of the firm belief that expanding voter access to polling units in Nigeria is crucial to voter turnout in elections, adding that experience has shown that enhanced voter access to polling units increases turnout in elections.
He pointed out that factors such as 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.
Prof. Yakubu noted also that in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is necessary to decongest polling units to minimise overcrowding and reduce the long distances voters often travel in overcrowded means of transport in order to vote during elections.
According to him, “unfortunately, the last time polling units were established was 25 years ago in 1996 by the defunct National Electoral Commission of Nigeria (NECON). 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 database (aged 18 to 25 years) were not even born when the current polling units were established a quarter of a century ago.
“Learning from previous experience, the Commission has now decided to engage with Nigerians by consulting widely. 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”, he stated.
During the engagement, which coincided with the first regular quarterly meeting of political parties and the Commission for 2021, INEC presented documentary and visual evidence on the challenges of voter access to Polling Units in Nigeria. Among them was the INEC Discussion Paper No.1/2021 titled, The State of Voter Access to Polling Units in Nigeria.
The Discussion Paper which was presented by National Commissioner, Okechukwu Ibeanu, revealed that voter access to Polling Units is at the heart of democratic rights, and the problem of lack of access is disenfranchising millions of Nigerians and could damage the credibility of elections in Nigeria if not solved.
While noting that there are over 5,000 requests for Polling Units from all over the country, he stated that stakeholders can play a role in depoliticising the issues involved and working with the Commission to build national consensus to solve it.
He, however, stressed on the need to address this problem ahead of the Continuous Voter Registration, off-season elections and 2023 general elections.
Following extensive deliberations the Communiqué issued at the end of the meeting resolved as follows;
“That given the current state of voter access to polling units in Nigeria, expanding access to Polling Units is fundamental to the exercise of the right to vote and to free, fair and credible elections.
“That in expanding access, it is important and necessary to consult with leaders of Political Parties and other relevant stakeholders to develop a consensus and build trust.
“That there is merit in the INEC proposal of converting the existing and well-known Voting Points (VPs) and Voting Point Settlements (VPS) nationwide into full-fledged Polling Units to address the problem of voter access. Therefore, political parties fully support this solution.
“The Commission should commence the process of converting the existing Voting Points (VPs) and Voting Points Settlement (VPS) nationwide into full-fledged Polling Units immediately, based on clearly articulated guidelines to be developed by INEC and shared with stakeholders.
“That there should be further consultations between INEC and the Political Parties to ensure successful expansion of voter access to Polling Units.
“Stakeholders should support INEC’s efforts to expand voter access to Polling Units and avoid politicizing the issues involved”.
The Communiqué was signed by representatives of 16 Political Parties which are; Accord (A); Action Alliance (AA); Action Democratic Party (ADP); African Action Congress (AAC); Action Peoples Party (APP); All Progressives Congress (APC); All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA); Allied Peoples Movement (APM); Boot Party (BP).
Others are; Labour Party (LP); National Rescue Movement (NRM); New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP); Peoples Democratic Party (PDP); Peoples Redemption Party (PRP); Social Democratic Party (SDP); Young Progressives Party (YPP); and Secretary, INEC.
