New Polling Units: INEC To Send Bulk SMS To Voters Before Election Day

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is to send bulk SMS to voters that has been migrated to new polling units as well as those who transferred their voting rights to new polling units for ease of identifying their polling units during the general elections. The Commission in a statement signed by the Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, said it discovered during the recent mock accreditation exercise that some eligible voters turned up in the wrong polling units. INEC said as a way of making the voting process easier for Nigerians, it created an addition 56,872 new polling units across the country while decongesting over populated ones.

The statement said “arising from the recent mock accreditation exercise nationwide using the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), some voters turned up at the wrong polling units. This happened both in cases where voters have been migrated to other polling units by the Commission and even where they voluntarily chose new voting locations during the last Continuous Voter Registration (CVR). We believe that there could be other voters in the same situation. This challenge must be addressed so that it does not happen on Election Day.

“In order to ease the process, the Commission is sending bulk phone text messages (SMS) to citizens voting in new polling units. Similarly, the register of such voters for each State has been sent to the Resident Electoral Commissioners for publicity, particularly through messages in local languages.  Furthermore, the Commission is offering two unique ways by which all voters can locate and confirm their Polling Units before Election Day. This can be done by sending a normal text message or by simply visiting our website. The detailed procedure is attached to this message and also uploaded to our website and social media platforms.”

-The Nation