7th February, 2021
The Lagos State Chapter of Accord Party on Sunday described the plans by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to expand the number of polling units in Nigeria as timely and beneficial.
Mr Dele Oladeji, the state Publicity Secretary of the party in Lagos on Sunday, said that the plan would encourage many voters to exercise their franchise during polls.
According to him, the delay, difficulty and time voters spend at polling units during elections are enough to dissuade many from coming out to vote on election day.
“Accord Party welcomes INEC’s plans to create more polling units in the country, so as to further decongest existing polling booths.
“This will further reduce the average time every citizen has to spend on the queue before they cast their vote,” Oladeji said.
The spokesman, however, called on the electoral umpire to work more on technologies that could ensure electoral integrity and prevent malpractices.
“We also implore INEC to introduce more anti-fraud technologies into the electoral process in its efforts to ensure genuine democracy.
“We need technologies, tools and innovations that can deter electoral frauds,” he said.
After 25 years of last creation of Polling Units in Nigeria, INEC on Feb.5, commenced engagement with stakeholders on the expansion of voters’ access to polling units.
INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu at the commission’s stakeholders meeting with political parties’ leaders in Abuja, said expanding voter access to polling units in Nigeria was crucial to voter turnout in elections.
Yakubu said the experience had shown that enhanced voter access to polling units increased turnout in elections.
In a communique signed by the 16 parties physically present at the meeting, leaders of the parties resolved that there was merit in INEC’s proposal in converting the existing voting points and voting points settlement nationwide to full-fledged polling units to address the problem of voter access.
They also resolved that the commission should commence the process of conversion base on clearly articulated guidelines to be developed by INEC and shared with stakeholders.
INEC currently has 119,973 Polling Units across the country.