PHOTOS: Election begins in Abuja area councils

The election for chairmanship and councillorship kicked off in the six area councils of the federal capital territory (FCT) on Saturday.

Unlike in the 36 states where state electoral commissions conduct the council elections, the FCT council elections are conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

According to the commission, 14 political parties and 472 candidates are participating.

They include Action Democratic Party (ADP), All Progressives Congress (APC), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Social Democratic Party (SDP), All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), Allied Peoples Movement (APM), African Action Congress (AAC) and Labour Party (LP).

They are competing for 62 councillorship and six chairmanship seats.

The election is being held in the 68 wards spread across Bwari, Abaji, Gwagwalada, Kuje, Kwali and Abuja Municipal Council (AMAC) area councils of the FCT.

INEC had previously disclosed that there are 1,373,492 registered voters expected to participate in the election in 2,229 polling units.

The commission also said it had deployed 2,822 the biometric voters accreditation system (BVAS) and 12,000 adhoc staff for the exercise.

Visiting some polling units, TheCable observed a high turnout in units that have a high number of voters, and a low turnout in units that have few number of voters.

Voting in most polling units started later than 9am contrary to the 8:30am stipulated time. A presiding officer at polling unit 001 in Dutse ward, told TheCable that this happened owing to the late arrival of election materials.

Below are photos.