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The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has addressed claims that voters were moved from their original polling units during the Area Council elections held on 21st February 2026 in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
This clarification was provided in a statement by INEC on Sunday, written by Wilfred Ifogah, its Acting Director of Voter Education and Publicity.
INEC said split polling units were created in large polling units with more than 1,250 registered voters to reduce congestion on election day.
According to INEC, these split units were located a few metres from the original polling units within the same premises.
“Contrary to the claim in some quarters that some voters were migrated to another/new polling units different from their original polling units, the Commission wishes to state categorically that voters were not migrated, what the Commission did was to create split polling units in large polling units with voters registration of over 1,250 voters to avoid congestion on election day,” INEC said.
“The split units are located some few meters away from the original polling units within the same premises.”
INEC also said that voters affected by the split units were informed in advance through text messages and emails sent between 18th and 21st February, providing details of the designated polling units.
It stated, “The public will recall that the Commission displayed the Register of Voters at designated centres/split polling units four days to the Area Council elections to enable voters confirm their details and polling unit locations.
“Text messages/emails were sent to the affected voters on Wednesday 18th, Thursday 19th, Friday 20th and Saturday 21st February 2026 indicating the actual locations of their split polling units, were intended solely as reminders to assist them in identifying their current polling units.”
The elections covered chairmanship and 62 councillorship positions across the six FCT Area Councils.
The Commission said the upload of polling unit results to the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) Portal had reached 93% as of 2:00 pm on Sunday, 22nd February 2026.
“Residents of the FCT and other interested members of the public can access results from the six Area Councils via the portal,” it added.
It notes improvement compared to the previous election. In the 2022 Area Council election, 148,685 voters were recorded, representing 9.4% of registered voters.
In the current election, over 239,210 voters cast ballots, representing approximately 15% of the 1,680,315 registered voters in the FCT.
