INEC Suspends Creation of Additional 30,000 Polling Units

The Election Management Board (EMB) of the Independent National Election (INEC) has suspended the creation of the controversial 30,000 additional polling units.
It cited time as the reason for the suspension.

The decision of the commission to create additional polling units that was seen generally as favouring the North against the South has caused a lot of controversy to the extent that some politicians have taken INEC to court.

In the proposed creation of additional polling units, the North has over 21,850 polling centres compared to the South with less than 8,000.

But on Tuesday, the commission’s Secretary,   Mrs. Augusta C. Ogakwu, said in a statement that the commission met and reviewed reports sent in from the states by Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) on reconfiguration of the polling unit structure and creation of additional polling units.

She said:  “After taking everything into consideration, especially the controversy over the creation of additional polling units that have been overheating the polity, and the apparent inadequacy of time for the exercise, the commission took a decision to suspend the exercise until after the 2015 general election.”