The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has denied that some voters were arbitrarily moved to new polling units during Saturday’s Federal Capital Territory (FTC), Area Council elections,
It however, said that split polling units were created to ease congestion, but acknowledged that some voters experienced difficulties locating their designated polling units.
INEC said; “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”.
The Commission explained it only created split polling units in locations with more than 1,250 registered voters to reduce overcrowding.
These were contained in a statement by Wilfred Ifogah, Acting Director of Voter Education and Publicity of INEC, in which she stated that the Commission successfully conducted elections on Saturday, February 21, 2026, for the six Area Council chairmanship positions and 62 councillorship seats across the FCT.
Ifogah said that based on the INEC’s Election Operations Dashboard, 45 per cent of polling units opened for voting by 8:30 a.m., while all polling units were confirmed open by 10:00 a.m. on Election Day.
INEC further said that it displayed the Register of Voters at designated centres and split polling units four days before the election to enable voters to confirm their details and polling unit locations.
It also said that text messages and emails were sent to affected voters between Wednesday, February 18 and Saturday, February 21, 2026, to notify them of their updated polling locations.
The Commission explained that the notifications were intended solely as reminders to assist the affected voters in identifying their current polling units.
While expressing concern over voter apathy, the Commission said that there was a marked improvement in turnout compared to the previous election.
According to INEC; “In the 2022 Area Council election, 148,685 voters participated, representing 9.4 per cent of registered voters. In the just-concluded poll, over 239,210 voters cast their ballots — approximately 15 per cent of the 1,680,315 registered voters in the FCT.
“The participation recorded across the six Area Councils is indicative of citizens’ continued trust in building democracy and the electoral system,” Ifogah stated.
The Commission attributed the delay in announcing election results for the Kuje Area Council to logistical challenges in Kabi Ward.
It said; “The delay in the results of Kuje Area Council is due to the difficult terrain of Kabi ward, which delayed the final collation of the Area Council results”.
