2027:Concerns as INEC ‘secretly creates 453 polling units without public disclosure’

SaharaReporters says an official document shows INEC created 453 additional polling units, raising the national total to 177,299, without public announcement or stakeholder consultation, though INEC has not yet responded to the claims.

SaharaReporters says it has uncovered the secret creation of 453 additional polling units by the Independent National Electoral Commission, without public announcement or disclosure to key electoral stakeholders, ahead of the 2027 general elections.

An official document obtained by the outlet shows Delta State now has 6,316 polling units, up from 5,863 at the last general elections, bringing the national total to 177,299. INEC has continued to publicly state the figure as 176,846.

Sources said some senior INEC officials and staff were unaware of the exercise. “Even more troubling is that some senior officials and staff of the Commission are unaware of the exercise, while INEC continues to state publicly that the country had 176,846 polling units,” one source said.

The source acknowledged INEC’s powers under Section 40(2) of the Electoral Act but argued: “Polling unit creation is not a routine bureaucratic exercise, it has significant political, geographical, social and cultural implications, with the potential to provoke communal tensions and electoral disputes.”

The source contrasted this with 2021, when INEC created 56,872 units after “wide-ranging consultations with stakeholders and fieldwork by our officials.” The source asked: “What has changed that makes consultation and public accountability apparently dispensable today?”