INEC cancels election in 38 polling units in Imo

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said on Wednesday that there will be no election in 38 polling units in Imo State on Saturday, November 11, 2023.

INEC announced this in a statement in continuation of the Commission’s preparations for the three off-cycle governorship elections in Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi States.

“Dear Imolites, please note that there will be no election in the following polling units (as attached in frames 1 & 2) with no registered voters,” the Electoral Commission said.

The Electoral Commission also said in the statement that residents of the 38 affected areas should not expect personnel and materials at those locations.

In another development, the Commission is making available two publications on the forthcoming polls, as follows: an information booklet and a list of polling and collection agents.

This was confirmed in a press release signed by the National Commissioner & Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Sam Olumekun.

Olumekun said the information booklet contains an infographic summary of registered voters and Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs) collected by Local Government Areas (LGAs) as well as the distribution of registered voters by gender, age group, occupation and disability.

The publication also includes a list of candidates and detailed information on the two polling units in Bayelsa and 38 in Imo State without registered voters.

The Commission has repeatedly said that elections will not be held in these polling units. No materials have been produced for these locations and no officials will be deployed to them.

On the list of Polling and Collation Agents, he said that 16 political parties are sponsoring candidates for the election in Bayelsa State and 18 in both Imo and Kogi States.

The elections will be held in 10,470 polling units (excluding the 40 polling units without registered voters).

Each political party is expected to nominate polling agents for all the polling units as well as 649 Ward, 56 LGA and three state collation centres.

However, at the close of the deadline for uploading the list of agents to the INEC dedicated portal by political parties, 34,704 agents were uploaded for Bayelsa, 65,274 for Imo and 37,995 for Kogi, making a total of 137,973 polling and collation agents for the three states.

The detailed breakdown shows that not all the parties nominated agents for the polling and collation centres across the states.

Indeed, some political parties have no polling unit or collation agents in some states despite having candidates in the election.

The information booklet as well as the comprehensive summary of the agents and their distribution by polling units, as well as the ward, LGA and state collation centres, have been uploaded to INEC’s website and social media platforms for public information.

“Click on the links for details on the Summary of Polling Units & Collation Agents, and Information Booklet on Bayelsa, Imo & Kogi Governorship Elections: https://inecnigeria.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Summary-of-Polling-Unit-Collation-Centre-Agents.pdf and https://inecnigeria.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/INFORMATION-BOOKLET-FOR-BAYELSA-IMO-KOGI-ELECTION.pdf,” Olumekun said.