AREA COUNCIL ELECTIONS: INEC SPLITS KUBWA WARD

As the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) intensifies preparations towards the February 21 Area Council Elections, Kubwa Ward was a subject of interest to the Commission.

Briefing the media on Tuesday, the Resident Electoral Commissioner(REC) for the Federal Capital Territory(FCT) Malam Aminu Idris revealed that essential processes that are aimed at conducting a hitch-free election have been completed. One of which was a vetted voter register for the FCT. Malam Idris said, “Following the revision of the register of voters, the total number of registered voters in the FCT is now 1,680,315.”  This indicates that across the Six Area Councils of the FCT, that is the maximum number of voters expected to turn out in the various Area Councils and Wards to elect the next set of political administrators to run grassroots affairs in Abuja.

The REC also told his audience that the Commission has received and batched non-sensitive materials and has activated the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) in readiness for the elections.

The REC announced that there will be no elections in four polling units

In a promisory tone, the National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Mallam Mohammed Haruna said “As is our established practice, the Commission will, in the presence of party agents, security personnel, civil society organisations and the media, take delivery of these sensitive materials from the FCT Branch of the Central Bank of Nigeria on Wednesday, February 18, for distribution to Area Council offices ahead of the polls at 8:30 a.m. on February 21. No stone must be left unturned to ensure that the election is free, fair and credible,”

In what appears to be an unusual occurrence, the REC announced that there will be no elections in four polling units, three in Garki Ward and one in Jiwa Ward, as a result of no registered voters for those polling units. However, the opposite seems to be the case, as Kubwa Ward was split, or, as Malam Idris said, it was decongested because the ward is one of the large Registration Area Centres (RAC), leading to the creation of sub-RACs to improve deployment of men and materials. Other large RACs are said to be in Dutse Alhaji, Gwarimpa and Kabusa Wards.

Noteworthy is the fact that the forthcoming election is the first since the Electoral Act approved the extension of tenures for FCT Area Council office holders from three years to four years, making this an election session that INEC takes quite seriously, as it plans to run a mock accreditation exercise and test the seamlessness of transmitting results into the INEC Result Viewing (IREV) portal.