Voters will receive SMS to know their new polling units, says INEC

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), says it will send text messages to voters who have been moved to new polling units.

The commission said it allocated voters from overcrowded polling units to less congested ones for the forthcoming polls to ease the voting process.

Speaking on Monday during a meeting with leaders of political parties, Mahmood Yakubu, INEC chairman, said feedback from the nationwide mock accreditation exercise with the BVAS showed that some voters could not easily identify their polling units.

“Consequently, the commission is advising voters to confirm the locations of their polling units through a dedicated portal on our website. In addition, all voters who have been assigned to new polling units will receive text messages from the commission indicating their polling units,” Yakubu said.

“We have also compiled the register of such voters and our state offices will give it wide publicity, especially for those who may not have provided their telephone numbers during voter registration or those whose numbers may have changed.

Nigerians can click here to confirm the locations of their poll unit.

Yakubu also said the commission is finalising the issuance of 1,642,386 identification tags for the polling and collation agents nominated by the 18 political parties.

“I urge the chairmen and leaders of political parties to ensure that only agents accredited by the commission and wearing the correct identification tags appear at polling units and collation centres during elections,” he said.

“A situation where two or more agents claim to represent a political party, resulting in commotion at polling units or collation centres, is unacceptable. Only Identification tags issued by the commission will be recognised on election day and violators are liable to arrest and prosecution for impersonation.”