The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is set to create additional 57,023 polling units (PUs) from the present 119,973 for the first time in 25 years.
The commission would apply a lower and upper limit threshold to disaggregate the present PUs in the country, this implies the lower limit for any PU going forward would be 500 registered voters, while no PU would have more than 750 registered voters, Daily Sun learned.
In the past, some PUs used to have over 1,500 registered voters.
Sources within the commission revealed that some powerful people tried to scuttle the move but the Chairman, Mahmud Yakubu, stood his ground despite the pressure which would have skewed the allocation of PUs in an unscientific manner in favour of some states.
It was gathered that while the commission had been used to a 750 lower limit and 1,000 upper limit threshold, some persons were pushing for a lower limit threshold of 1,000 and upper limit of 1,999.
The commission’s sources said had the latter option been taken, some states would have lost many PUs and the direct implication would have been confusion on election day and a scenario whereby most voters would be disenfranchised.
