Etim Effiong
The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has established 2,239 additional polling units in Delta State.
The Resident Electoral Commissioner for Delta State, Monday Udoh-Tom, said this during a stakeholders’ meeting on the exercise at INEC headquarters in Asaba.
With the establishment of the additional 2,239 polling units, Delta State now has a total of 5,863 voting points spread across the 25 local government areas of the state.
Udoh-Tom said: “We have new settlements developing every day, and some of the polling units were put in places that they were not supposed to be. For instance, in shrines, religious houses and even people’s homes.
“So, the idea was to make sure that all of them were pulled out and kept where they are accessible to voters. And the distance between voters and polling units was now reduced, so that on Election Day people can move easily and vote.”
He stated that the exercise, which was conducted between April 22 and 29, was followed by the verification of the conformity of the process by INEC teams at the local government areas in synergy with officials in the state and INEC headquarters in Abuja.
According to him, the stakeholders meeting was in line with INEC’s tradition of keeping electoral shareholders abreast of changes or innovations in the electoral system.
Some representatives of political parties, civil society organizations and security agencies at the event praised INEC for the initiative and said the upscale of polling units would upgrade the process of future elections.