Peter Jerome
As part of plans and preparation for a hitch free electoral process in the much-anticipated 2023 elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), after many consultations from the different relevant bodies and groups had created over 57,000 new polling unit which will be officially inaugurated to add up to the already existing 119,973 created by the defunct National Electoral Commission of Nigeria (NECON) in 1996.
The principal reason behind the establishment of these polling units according to INEC, is a technical response to the rising population of the country to enhance a swift and all-involving elections and voting process.
In a related development, voters’ registration exercise by INEC will resume on the 28th of this month. The voters’ registration exercise according to the independent election planning body, will continue to till august 2022 which is about two weeks to the 2023 general elections. Also, INEC is set to commence training of its Ad-hoc staff this week.
Other changes introduced into the system by INEC is the INEC Voter Enrollment Device (IVED) to replace the Direct Data Capture (DDC) machine that is currently being used for registration.