THE North has condemned the decision by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to review creation of additional 30,000 polling units, saying the move is unacceptable.
The former National Publicity Secretary of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) and spokesman of the Northern Delegates Forum (NDF) at the recent National Conference, Mr. Anthony Sani, said reports that INEC may review the exercise is condemnable because the commission appears not to be in firm control of its activities preparatory to the 2015 general election.
He said judging from the commission’s pronouncement, INEC seems to be acting based on pressure from interests that are against the implementation of earlier resolve by the Commission to create more polling units to facilitate a credible election.
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Sani argued: “It is in bad taste. Bad taste in the sense that INEC is expected to make decisions based on informed criteria, and not at the whim and caprice of anybody or any group. From explanations by the INEC chairman, the number of polling units were arrived at after painstaking work that took into account the need to reduce the number of voters in a polling unit to a manageable level, as well as the need to reduce the distance voters should travel to cast their votes on election day.”
“Those who deplore the exercise on grounds that voters have been displaced by insurgents in the North East should not give the impression that the government has no plans to overcome the insurgency soon, so that displaced persons will come back and exercise their franchise. Most of all, it is morally preposterous to submit that allowances should not be made for scattered settlements across the North due to the land mass.”
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