INEC Lauds FCT Residents For Smooth Area Councils Election

The Independent National Electoral Commission INEC has commended residents of the Federal Capital Territory FCT for peaceful conduct during the FCT Area Council Election.

This is contained in a statement By the Commission.

It however, noted challenges encountered by some voters in locating their designated polling units.

It said contrary to the claim in some quarters that some voters were migrated to new polling units different from their original polling units, the Commission stated 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.”

According to the commission, the split units are located some few meters away from the original polling units within the same premises.

The electoral umpire explained that the Commission displayed the Register of Voters at designated centres/split polling units four days to the Area Council election 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.”

According to the commission, the intention solely was to serve as reminders to assist voters in identifying their current polling units.

The Commission also explained that as at 2:00pm on Sunday, 22nd February 2026, the upload of polling unit results to the INEC Result Viewing IReV Portal had reached 93%.

While the Commission remained concerned about voter apathy, it noted a significant improvement compared to the previous election. In the 2022 Area Council election, a total of 148,685 voters were recorded, representing 9.4% of registered voters.

The commission however said that In the current election, over 239,210 voters voted, representing approximately 15% of the 1,680,315 total registered voters in the FCT.

INEC further explained that the delay in the results of Kuje Area Council was due to the difficult terrain of Kabi ward, which delayed the final collation of the Area Council results.

The Commission appreciated the electorate in the FCT for their cooperation and participation throughout the process.

“The participation recorded across the six Area Councils was indicative of citizens’ continued trust in building democracy and the electoral system.”

PR/Kayode Oyedare