Nigeria Content Online

Polling stations holding more than 300
voters are to be fragmented into smaller voting centres for next week’s
gubernatorial and state house of assembly elections, the Independent
National Electoral Commission (INEC) said yesterday.

Observers have warned that although the
parliamentary and presidential elections held yet remain one of
Nigeria’s fairest, congestion at polling centres across the federation
stands out as a problem requiring immediate attention as other
elections draw near.

At many voting areas, balloting dragged
into the night after material and officials were clearly outsized by
voters’ figures averaging about 1,000.

An earlier directive by the commission
to state resident electoral commissioners that large centres be reduced
to sizeable units was not fully implemented ahead of the presidential
elections last Saturday.

The European Union election monitoring
group said in its assessment of the election that for 633 randomly
observed polling units across the 36 states, only 14% were split as
INEC directed, with the rest having an average of 860 voters.

A spokesperson for the electoral body
said yesterday that any such flouting was “in default”, insisting that
the commission’s policy remains that, amongst its 120,000 polling
units, those averagely more than 300 be split into sub-units for
voting. “That has not changed and the electoral officers have been so
instructed again at a meeting today,” Kayode Idowu, spokesperson for
the chairman, Attahriu Jega, said after Mr Jega reviewed the
presidential elections with the state resident electoral commissioners
in Abuja on Tuesday.

Mr Jega and his team have earned praise
for the elections so far. Still, foreign and local observers have
expressed concerns about a “complicated and multi-tiered” collation
process, inducement of voters and overpopulated stations.

Multiplicity of units

Mr Idowu said the new voting points are not to be confused with the polling units whose creations are only permitted by the law.

Under the new arrangement, voters in a
particular polling unit in excess of 300 are to be assigned fresh
voting points which still come under the original polling unit. “This
does not breach the law,” Mr Idowu said. “For collation purposes, the
voting points come under the same PUs (polling units).” With each
existing polling unit numbering over 1000 registered voters, the
commission said it is aware that the decision is likely to affect
almost all polling units in the country.

The move is certain to escalate cost and the number of personnel
required for the governorship poll, deemed a crucial part of a series
of nationwide polls. The electoral body said the implication was
factored into the planning and that provisions for sufficient materials
and workforce have been made.