As things gear up for the 2023 general elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has openly expressed some concerns over the poor turnout of their residents who have been registering for the Permanent Voter Card (PVC) in the newly established 1,750 polling units in Katsina state.
The INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner for Katsina State (REC), Alhaji Jibril Zarewa had made this disclosure in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Katsina.
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He said that one year after the commencement of PVC registration, there was a poor turnout of people for registration in the newly established polling units.
According to Zarewa, “In May 2022 when we did the analysis, we realized out of the 1,750 newly established polling units, about 1,200 units did not have more than 50 people who registered in each of them.
“This registration involved transfers. Some of the polling units have zero registration, some have only one, some five while some have not more than 50 people who registered.
“Although this can be attributed to the suspension of telecommunication networks in 17 of the 34 Local Government Areas (LGAs) for about five months due to the security problem.
“Since the resumption of the exercise in March, out of the 1,750 polling units created, about 1,200 don’t have up to 50 people that registered in each of them.
“We are appealing to the people of those areas where the new polling units were created to go and register, as INEC is always ready for them.
“The reasons for the creation of additional polling units is to serve the areas and decongest the congested polling units through the transfer of their polling units, he said.
He disclosed that initially there were 4,902 polling units in the state but with the creation of the additional ones, there are 6,652 polling units at present.