INEC to delimitate, create new polling units

By Joseph Erunke

ABUJA—Chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Prof. Attahiru Jega, has said his administration would not only embark on delimitation of constituencies but establishment of more polling units across the country before the 2015 general elections.

He said that by law, the delimitation exercise was supposed to be carried out only after a national census or head count. However, the national census or head count is expected to be conducted in 2016, after the last one in 2006.

Jega said the need to create additional polling units in the country became imperative due to demographic shifts in certain parts of the country, occasioned by ethno-religious crises or sheer explosion of populations in certain areas.

Jega, who spoke at the opening of a two-day workshop organised for INEC’s Public Affairs Officers, PAOs, in Abuja yesterday, recalled that the commission had to create voting points to decongest some polling units during the 2011 general elections.

Jega noted that the projects were not only going to be mouthful and ambitious, but also momentous and delicate.

He said: “My dear Public Affairs Officers, you will agree with me that these projects are not only mouthful, they are ambitious, momentous and delicate.

“They call for strenuous and professional explaining to our many stakeholders if we want to succeed.”