It was a shocking revelation by the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, when he told political and media stakeholders that for the February 12, 2022 Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Area Council Elections, that there were 593 out of the 2,822 polling units in FCT with no registered voters.
The buzz round the INEC conference room was telling enough even for a pliant political class that does very little in mobilization of eligible Nigerians to engage in continuous voter registration other than to canvass for votes.
Prof. Yakubu’s expose brings to light the seeming indifference of citizens in the FCT to elections. The territory has continued to witness poor returns in elections especially for the area council polls.
The INEC chairman disclosed that the statistics are worrying with consistent less than 10 percent of all registered voters turning up to cast their votes during elections.
Yakubu said the figure represents about 21 per cent of the total number of polling units in FCT.
Yakubu explained that the reason was because voters failed to take advantage of the expansion of access to transfer to these new polling units.
Explaining preparations for the elections, the INEC chairman said, “It is now 25 days to the Area Council elections in the Federal Capital Territory. Major activities have already been carried out, including the conduct of primaries and nomination of candidates by political parties.
“Only last week, the Commission presented the register of voters to political parties while the PVCs for new registrants, requests for transfers and replacement of cards have been printed and delivered several weeks ago to our FCT office for collection by voters.
“In the next few weeks, the Commission will intensify stakeholder engagements, the monitoring of campaigns by political parties and preparations for Election Day activities.”
It is heartwarming to note that the commission will deploy the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS, in the FCT elections, which is the second major election after the Anambra Governorship election held in November last year.
“The 68 constituencies in the FCT (six Chairmen and 62 councillors) covering extensive urban and rural locations sharing border with five States in the North Central and North Western parts of the country is another opportunity to pilot the efficacy of the BVAS in a different geographical, geo-political and electoral context.
“The same technology will be deployed in all forthcoming bye-elections across the country. For all elections going forward, Polling Unit results will be uploaded in real-time to the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal,” he said.
It is the expectation of this newspaper that though it is within the purview of the electoral commission to distribute voters to the polling units without any voters, it will do well for new registrants and others to study the new polling units and take advantage of those in close proximity to them.
More than that, the political parties should engage in civic participation by eligible Nigerians. It is part of their objectives to get as many Nigerians involved in the electoral process and in that way, they can express their manifestos and why they should be voted for.
As the INEC continues to deploy technology in the electoral process, politicians and their parties ought to realise that the era of engaging in electoral malfeasance was fast eroding, therefore the imperative of sociliasation and mobilization of the people.
We remain persuaded that the February elections in the FCT is a litmus test for the INEC for future elections, and hope they come out smelling like roses.
