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From Fred Ezeh, Abuja
There was low turn out of voters for the Chairmanship and Councillorship positions at some polling stations in Jikwoyi, Kurudu, Kpeyegi and Karu, Abuja.
It was, however, gathered that the affected polling units are the ones that were newly established by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) preparatory to 2023 elections.
It was also gathered that newly registered voters are being assigned to the new polling units, hence the new polling units had few registered voters.
One of the polling units, PU018, located at the Ungwan Pashe/Central Primary School 1, Karu, Abuja, has only one registered voter, and at about 12pm, the only female registered voter was not present to cast her vote.
An official said: “We don’t have her number, we would have called to inform her about the development, and add that we are here because of her, that she was the only registered voter in our polling unit 018. I can assure you that more people would be here to vote in the forthcoming election.”
Similarly, at polling unit 073 located around Custom quarters, Karu, Abuja, National Youth Service Corp (NYSC) members and other officials were practically idle as at 11:00 am waiting for voters to come participate in the process of electing new Area Council officials.
However, there was impressive turn out of voters at polling unit 011 by Custom quarters, Karu, and several other polling units at Jikwoyi Primary School,and few others at Karu.
It was gathered that the polling units with impressive turn out of voters are existing polling units with high number of registered voter therein.
Meanwhile, one of the polling officers confirmed that the electronic device,
Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BIVAS), was better than the card reader device used in previous elections, thus, commending INEC for the initiative and for creating new polling units, which, he said, would be useful in the next election.
He said: “For instance, there are five new polling units in the primary school opposite karu market. However, it’s only one polling unit is busy, and that was because it’s an existing polling unit.
“But we are hopeful that by the next general elections in 2023, more people would have been registered and assigned to the new polling units.”
Nevertheless, election activities went smoothly across several polling units that were monitored. Accreditation device, Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BIVAS), was used to accredit and authenticate voters, amidst close observation from party agents, observer and journalists.
