Much Ado about Creating New Polling Units
Nseobong Okon-Ekong and Chuks Okocha write that the resolve by the Independent National Electoral Commission to create and expand existing Polling Units across the country ahead of the 2023 national elections has been received with suspicion in some quarters, while the commission advances compelling reasons for the exercise
The ongoing effort by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to get the understanding of all stakeholders in order to have a smooth increase in the number of Polling Units in the country is undoubtedly one of the greatest challenges facing Professor Mahmood Yakubu as Chairman of the electoral body. This may yet become a significant milestone when he succeeds in what he has set out to accomplish. As he has already set a record by getting an unprecedented second tenure, the INEC Chairman has a good opportunity to carry out many of the reforms that have been suggested across board to give the nation a better chance to get electoral processes that are devoid of needless controversies.
Justifying Need for More Polling Units
In the last few weeks, Yakubu has pursued the issue of increase in Polling Units with his famed single mindedness. He has sought collaborators; from political parties to electoral advocacy groups and the civil society. Last Thursday took his campaign for more Polling Units to the National Economic Council (NEC). Knowing the methodic approach with which the INEC Chairman prosecutes his campaigns, the discourse on Polling Units will be thoroughly discussed at all fora and places that are needful.
The National Economic Council is a body presided by the Vice President and consisting of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, the 36 state governors and the Minister of the Federal Capital Teritory(FCT), among others.
It looks like the INEC Chairman has won with many compelling arguments. What his critics may be looking for is an underlying crooked motive, which may be difficult to find and even more difficult to prove. Indeed, it is true that all parts of the country are affected by limiting voters access to Polling Units. One of the fears is that a political party or a section of the country can take advantage of the increase in Polling Units, but such concerns were addressed by Mr. Rotimi Oyekanmi,Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman. He vehemently said this was not possible, for the simple reason that “the number of registered voters is known and cannot be changed.” He adduced further reasons. “If, for instance, you allocate 100 more Polling Units to Taraba State, you cannot have more than the total number of registered voters - 1,777,105 - cast their ballots in an election.”
Yakubu’s briefing at the NEC began with a poser. ‘What is the state of voter access to Polling Units in Nigeria?’ It was a spellbinder that got their attention. The answer, he told them, is that voter access to Polling Units, ‘is in a state of crisis, and it has been so for some time. ‘ Justifying the need for more Polling Units, he said, “existing Polling nits can no longer substantially guarantee the exercise of that fundamental right to vote by citizens.”
No one hearing his next point will fail to stand by his corner. According to him, “Existing polling units in Nigeria, numbering 119, 973 were established in 1996. They are a quarter of a century old. They are no longer adequate in number, they are no longer conducive for voters to freely vote, especially in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. They are also unsuitable for the Commission to properly manage elections and to ensure that rules and regulations are strictly followed.
Controvery Over Number of PUs in North and South
There are 57,023 Poting Points across the country. The current structure of Polling Units was established in 1996 and INEC subsequently created Voting Points prior to the 2011 general election to enhance efficiency in election management by decongesting Polling Units that had more than 750 registered voters. Voting Point Settlements (VPS) were also created in the Federal Capital Territory in addition to Polling Units and Voting Points.
The issue of additional Polling Units which was shelved ahead of the 2015 general election seems to have come to the fore again. It will be recalled that in August 2014, INEC under the leadership of Prof. Attahiru Jega sought to create 30,027 additional polling units ahead of the 2015 general election, with 21,615 in the north and 8,412 in the southern part of the country.
This led to the suspension of the proposed plan by the Commission. Nigeria’s rapidly growing population and changing demographics, as well as, registration of new voters, creation of new settlements, including camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs), the need to decongest crowded polling units in urban areas, may be some of the reasons that have given rise to plans for the creation of more polling units.
Yakubu, last week disclosed that as at February 15, the commission had received 9,777 requests from across the country for the establishment of additional polling units. He observed that the requests, which were 5,700 as at October, 2020, had spiralled by over 4,000 in just four months.
Concerns have continue to mount on how INEC plans to create and expand the existing 119 973 polling units in the country. So far, INEC said that it has received 9777 requests for the creation of new polling units. The request came from 25 out of the 36 states.
The concerns, according to stakeholders from the two main political parties, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), is how INEC would allocate the new polling units without necessarily giving any advantage to either of the political divides- North and South because of the stakes at hand by 2023.
A source from one of the main political parties said, “In 2014, the idea was jettisoned because out of the 30,027 additional polling units ahead of the 2015 general elections, the north got 21,615 and 8,412 in the southern in the sharing of the polling units.
“This was quite disproportional in the sharing as the North got 21,615 and the South considered as densely populated receiving 8, 412. This was the controversy that led to killing the idea of creating and expanding the polling units in August 2014.
At the meeting with INEC a fortnight ago, a member of one of the leading political parties, said, “We agreed that the creation and expansion of the polling units is welcomed but, we don’t seem to know the criteria for this. This is the fear most of us expressed at the meeting
“But in principle, we agree on the expansion and creation of new polling units, we still wait for the criteria and hope it will not be like what happened in 2014. This is particularly due to the coming 2023 presidential election,” the source said.
With 8,462, Lagos State has the highest number of Polling Units, while Nasarawa stands at the bottom with 1,495 PUs.However, when it comes to the number of voters per PU per state, Nasarawa is on top with 1,082 voters. So, there is a very strong likelihood of creation of more Polling Units in Nasarawa State. However, the case advanced by Yakubu favours other states, as well. Showing maps to the NEC, he cited, Surulere, Lagos – 1996 (Satellite Image showing PUs and unserved areas); Karu LGA of Nasarawa State (Only 4 polling Units serving the entire population there. Mararaba Garage 1 has one PU and 18 VPs; Mararaba Garage II, one PU, 19 VPs; Mararaba White House – 1PU, 29 VPs; Mararaba Sharp Corner – 14 VPs; in the areas, 4 PUs, 80VPs ); Edo State, Adamawa (a crowded PU in Yola on 23rd February 2019) and Video (Karu, Nasarawa State. Crowded PU). “The problem, the INEC Chairman argued, “affects all parts of the country. Our Polling Units are clustered in a few areas and they are very large areas adjoining the location of Polling Units that are completely unserved.”
Once a national consensus was forged by stakeholders around the conversion of existing VPs and VPS to Polling Units, the Commission could proceed to establish new Polling Units by March 2021. He explained that it was necessary for the new Polling Units to be created next month to pave way for the re-commencement of the Continuous Voter Registration(CVR) exercise which was suspended shortly before the conduct of the 2019 General Elections. He said, “The creation of new Polling Units can be accomplished before the end of March(2021). This is because PUs have to be determined before the re-commencement of the Continuous Voter Registration exercise.” The commission is yet to meet the Southern socio-cultural groups like the Pan Niger Delta Development group, the Ohanaeze Ndi Igbo and other groups. One thing is clear, INEC is keeping criteria for the sharing and allocation of the new polling stations to it’s chest. It has also assured all of equity and fairness
What are the manifestations of this crisis in the Polling Units?
The first one is overcrowding. Virtually all the polling Units in Nigeria are over-crowded. Because of that, the Polling Units are prone to violence, they are unhealthy for voters and officials, some are located in conflict areas, some
in homes of political chieftains, in forests and in shrines. The Commission has moved quite a number of them from unsuitable locations to more suitable locations, but there are still some of them in problematic locations and they contribute to poor electoral services rendered by the Commission, which include late commencement of polls and the disruption of elections. There is also a decline in voter turnout which we believe is partially related to the issue of Polling Units.
In a communique released after meeting wirh INEC, the political parties has asked INEC to immediately commence the process of converting already existing Voting Points and Voting Points Settlements into full fledged Polling Units.
The advice was contained in a six points communique signed by leaders of seventeen political parties including the APC and PDP at the end of a one day engagement and consultation with the Commission on the need to expand voter access to polling units.
The communique, further stated that given the current state of voter access to polling units, in Nigeria, expanding access to polling units is fundamental to the exercise of the right to vote and to free, fair and credible elections.
Meanwhile, the INEC National Commissioner and Chairman, Electoral Operations and Logistics Committee, Prof. Okechukwu Ibeanu in a paper “The State of Voter Access To Polling Units in Nigeria “, made available to THISDAY said that the current configuration of polling units in the country is grossly inadequate and cannot guarantee the fundamental democratic right of Nigerians to vote.
Prof. Ibeanu said that since polling units give meaning to the right to vote, this automatically connotes that a place to vote gives meaning to the right to vote.
According to Ibeanu, a Professor of Political Science, if an individual has a right to vote without a place to cast the said vote, then the supposed right is at best superficial. His words: “if you have a right to vote, but you don’t have a place to vote, then that right is essentially academic.”
He stated the Commission believes that the polling units, as they exist in Nigeria today, are not fit for voting purpose. The interesting thing, he quickly added, “is that this problem is nationwide. It’s not about one part of the country or another; east or west, north or south.”
He reiterated the INEC Chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu’s assertion earlier at the meeting that the current 119,973 polling units were created “a quarter of a century ago” while the situation has remained the same since then.
Putting the issue in context, Prof Ibeanu said the polling units were not only inadequate in number, they were also not conducive to voters in terms of exercising the right to vote, especially in the context of the ranging COVID-19 pandemic. Besides, he added, they are also not suitable for the Commission to properly conduct its work in terms of ensuring that elections are properly conducted according to rules and regulations.
His words: “It is important to note that voter access to polling units is not just about having adequate numbers. It’s not about just establishing more polling units. It’s also to ensure that those polling units, when they are established, are fit for purpose, conducive to voters in terms of exercising their democratic rights and also, perhaps as important, that they are suitable for the Commission to do its work.
“Unfortunately over the years, it’s just the first aspect of access to polling units that is emphasized, that is creation of more polling units. But if the problem is just about creating more polling units, then it is clear to me that some of the solutions that the Commission had tried like the use of Voting Points, would have solved the problem. But it hasn’t solved the problem, which means it’s not just about creating polling units. It’s also about locating them in places that are conducive for voters.”
Prof Ibeanu listed some of the manifestations of the crisis of voter access to polling units as overcrowding and electoral violence. Many of the PUs, he noted, are also located in conflict areas, homes of political chieftains, deep forests and shrines. The crisis “also manifests in poor electoral services such as late commencement of polls, disruption of elections and the declining voter turnout at elections.”
He added: “To illustrate the declining voter turnout at elections, between 1999 and 2019, voter turnout in Nigerian fell by 17 percentage points. But compare that to Ghana: between 2000 and 2020, voter turnout rose by 17 percentage points, the direct converse of the Nigerian situation. We think that this is strongly correlated to the average number of voters per polling units. If you look at the Nigerian situation, the average number of voters per polling unit increased by 217. Conversely for Ghana, it decreased by 91 voters. So, it seems to suggest that the more voters per polling unit, the lower the voter turnout and I think there is a logic to that.”
The INEC National Commissioner had posited that over the years, INEC had tried a number of interim solutions. He explained that in 2007, the Commission introduced Baby Polling Units in 2007, Voting Points (VPs) in 2011 and Voting Points Settlements (VPS) in 2016 in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
He said: “The VPs and VPS have been in use since 2011 and 2016. The critical thing is that these have been stop-gap solutions. In many cases, these interim solutions have constituted their own problems. The Baby Units, for example, entailed bringing results from them to the mother units for collation. And each time, there was a major crisis because people were wondering where those results were coming from. The same thing applies to the Voting Points when in some cases, you had over-voting in them, people were wondering whether the results of the entire Polling Unit would be valid. A permanent solution has remained elusive.
“The Commission had tried to establish more polling units in line with the Electoral Act. Section 42 of the Act talks about the Commission establishing adequate number of polling units and allotting voters to them. The Commission had also tried to relocate polling units to more suitable places and also to reorganize polling units on election day. But this has been met with resistance. Stakeholders have politicised the issues and there have been all sorts of conspiracy theories about the actual intention of the Commission. Perhaps, the Commission should have consulted more widely before embarking on those attempts.”
To be sure, Prof. Ibeanu said the idea behind the engagement with leaders of political parties was to lay all the issues on the table in order to encourage the stakeholders to work with the Commission to build a genuine national consensus and to try and find solutions to what is clearly a national problem ahead of some major activities in the electoral calendar, such as the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR), a number of off-season elections and the 2023 general election.
Proposal for Solving the Problem
Yakubu has put forward a lot of proposals to solve the problem. The first proposal is for residents to apply for Polling Units, and the application goes through verification and approval. This is consistent with the powers of the Commission under Section 42 of the Electoral Act which empowers the Commission to establish Polling Units and to allot voters to them. But this process is going to take a long time. So many groups have been writing the Commission asking for Polling Units, but the Commission did not request communities or individuals to apply for Polling Units. Not just Polling Units, citizens have also been asking for more Wards to be created; some have been asking for more State Constituencies to be established in some cases, even the things that we cannot do under the Constitution – creation of additional Federal Constituencies and even Senatorial Districts.
So, the first option will be for us under Section 42 of the Electoral Act to create and populate those Polling Units. It will take time to receive requests, it will take time to process and between now and the next General Election, it’s 729 days, one day shy of two years. The next election will hold on Saturday 18th February 2023.
The second option is to create Polling Areas under Section 13 of the Electoral Act and align them with the Registration Areas of the National Population Commission (NPC). We have been working with the NPC on this, but we haven’t made much progress. We have been working with the Population Commission since 2017 to align the enumeration areas to the Registration Areas but so far, we have covered a little over 240 local government areas out of 774. If in four years we have only covered 240 LGAs, it will take the next 10 years to cover all the 774 LGAs. It’s a good thing for the Commission to aspire to and for the nation as well, so that next time there is a population census, we’ll just adjust figures accordingly. But we’ll continue to work with the NPC. This is an option, but it is also cumbersome. It will require time and substantial amount of resources.
The third option is for us to consider converting the Voting Points and Voting Point Settlements into full-fledged autonomous Polling Units.
We believe that there are unserved areas of the country that can be better served by distributing the existing Voting Points and Voting Point Settlement into full-fledged Polling Units and relocating them to areas of need in the underserved areas. If that is done, we believe it will ease the pressure. And what is the justification? We are looking at five reasons why we think that is the most feasible option.
The first one is that the Voting Points have been used since 2011, therefore, they are well known and have been accepted as the basis for conducting elections since 2011. Citizens are familiar with them.
Number two, unserved areas can be easily verified using maps and the good thing is that we now have satellite imageries of the location of all our Polling Units nationwide.
Number three, conversion will require less time and resources. This is something that we can do easily on the basis of the information that we have.
Number four, it will address the substantial number of requests that we have received so far for the creation of Polling Units.
And number five, it is likely to be the least controversial of the three options.
As at now, Professor Yakubu stated, the congestion which bedevilled existing Polling Units and their abject non availability to those who deserved them had assumed the proportion of a crisis, adding that the 119,973 existing Polling Units were created in 1996, twenty five years ago.
Existing Polling nits can no longer substantially guarantee the exercise of that fundamental right to vote by citizens.” No one hearing his next point will fail to stand by his corner. According to him, “Existing polling units in Nigeria, numbering 119, 973 were established in 1996. They are a quarter of a century old. They are no longer adequate in number, they are no longer conducive for voters to freely vote, especially in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. They are also unsuitable for the Commission to properly manage elections and to ensure that rules and regulations are strictly followed. There are 57,023 Poting Points across the country. The current structure of Polling Units was established in 1996 and INEC subsequently created Voting Points prior to the 2011 general election to enhance efficiency in election management by decongesting Polling Units that had more than 750 registered voters
New Polling Units by March 2021
Prof. Yakubu disclosed that once a national consensus was forged by stakeholders around the conversion of existing VPs and VPS to Polling Units, the Commission could proceed to establish new Polling Units by March 2021.
He explained that it was necessary for the new Polling Units to be created next month to pave way for the re-commencement of the Continuous Voter Registration(CVR) exercise which was suspended shortly before the conduct of the 2019 General Elections.