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| INEC |
Opponents of more polling units
before next year’s elections may have won their battle. The Independent
National Electoral Commission (INEC) has suspended its plan to create
additional polling units.
The commission yesterday said the
exercise would wait till after the general elections.
The decision was taken after a
meeting.
A statement by INEC Secretary Mrs
Augusta C. Ogakwu reads: “The Commission met [yesterday], Tuesday, November
11th, 2014, and reviewed reports sent in from States by Resident Electoral
Commissioners (RECs) on reconfiguration of the polling unit structure and
creation of additional polling units.
“Taking everything into
consideration – especially the controversy over creation of additional polling
units that has been overheating the polity, and the apparent inadequacy of time
for the exercise – the Commission took a decision to suspend the exercise until
after the 2015 general elections.
“ The Commission, nevertheless: Will
continue with the use of Voting Points, where necessary, to mitigate population
pressure in overcrowded polling units during the forthcoming elections;
relocate polling units from unsuitable locations; and
“As much as possible ensure that
polling units are located in enclosures such classrooms, rather than in open
spaces. “
The electoral body had announced
over 21,000 extra polling units for all the states in North, and a little above
8,000 for all states in the South. This would have brought the number of
polling units to 150,000.
The ratio brought INEC’s chairman,
Prof Attahiru Jega, under immense criticism from the three geo-political zones
in the South.
The Senate also directed the
commission to discontinue the plan until after the general elections.
The Southern Nigeria Peoples
Assembly (SNPA), with the like of former Vice-President Alex Ekwueme, former
Federal Commissioner for Information Edwin Clark and Bishop Bolanle Gbonigi as
members, accused Jega of implementing a northern agenda.
The Southeast zonal chapter of the
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) described INEC’s plan as a great disservice to
the unity of the country and demanded its reversal.
Jega said the distribution of the
Polling Units was based on the existing voter’s register and was driven by the
Commission’s desire to reform the electoral process for free and fair elections
in 2015.
“There is not sectional or parochial
agenda in this decision and there will never be any under this Commission,”
Jega said.
His words: “The basic aim of the exercise we are
presently undertaking is to ease the access of voters to the ballot box in the
2015 general elections and beyond by decongesting overcrowded PUs and
dispersing voters as evenly as possible among all the Polling Units.”
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