The north-east and south-east zones of Nigeria have the highest number of polling units (PU) where the upcoming general election will not be held with 67 and 64 units respectively.
These two areas account for 54.59 percent of the total of 240 PUs registered by Independent General Election Commission (INEC) and analyzed by PREMIUM TIMES.
The Chairman of INEC, Mahmood Yakubu, a professor, has announced during a meeting with leaders of 18 registered political parties in Abuja on Monday that the upcoming national and state elections will not be held in the 240 PUs across the country.
PU is part of the newly created. INEC expanded the number of polling units in the country from 119,973 to 176,846 as part of efforts to decongest existing polling units.
Due to the absence of voters in 240 PUs, elections will only be held in 176,606 PUs in 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), the INEC Chairman said.
According to Mr. Yakubu, security is the main reason why no voter chose the polling unit or requested the transfer of PU to the place during the recently concluded Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) between June 2021 and July 2022.
While the presidential and national assembly elections will be held on February 25, the governorship and state assembly elections will be held on March 11.
Area, Country Distribution
According to the analysis of this newspaper, in the northeast 27.92 percent, in the southeast 26.67 percent.
Interestingly, these are the two most unsafe areas on the summit.
Followed by North-central zone with 49 (20.42%) PU, North-west with 47 (19.58%) PU, South-south with eight (3.33%) PU and Southwest with five (2, 08%) PU.
Imo and Taraba states also top the list of states with the highest number of PUs where polls will not be conducted. While the former has 38, the latter has 34.
He is followed by Abia in the south-east, Borno in the north-east and Katsina in the north-west 12 PU.
According to the list of polling units provided by INEC and analyzed by this newspaper, the North-east region has 67 PUs in five states where the forthcoming general elections will not be held. Only Gombe State has zero records in the area. Taraba has 34 polling units, 12 in Borno and 11 in Yobe state. Bauchi and Adamawa are six and four respectively in the region.
The South-East has a total of 64 polling units in all five states of the region, where elections will not be held. Imo State tops the list with 38 PUs, Abia with 12, Anambra with 6, while Ebonyi and Enugu have four PUs each.
In the north-central part, there are a total of 49 polling units in six states. In this region, Kogi is the only state without a PU where elections will not be held. FCT and Nasarawa have 11 polling units, and Benue and Niger have 10. While Plateau has six such PUs, Kwara has only one.
Meanwhile, in the northwest, all seven countries in the region contributed 47 PUs. Katsina has 12 polling units and 10 in Kano state. Sokoto and Kaduna states have eight and five in Kebbi state. While Jigawa has three PUs, Zamfara has only one.
READ ALSO: INEC converts 1,495 polling stations into polling units in Adamawa
In the south-south, four states have a total of eight PUs. Delta has four PUs and Bayelsa two. Edo and Kali have only one PU each.
Two states in the SouthWest account for a total of five registered PUs. While three PUs are registered in Lagos, Ondo has two.
INEC has scheduled the elections to begin with the presidential and national assembly elections on February 25 and continue with the governorship and state assembly elections two weeks later on March 11.
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