An investigation into electoral operations across Nigeria has revealed that the practice of loading individual polling units with thousands of registered voters is driving prolonged voting delays, counting bottlenecks, and transmission failures on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Result Viewing portal, known as IReV.
While electoral guidelines stipulate a maximum threshold of 500 voters per polling station, findings from multiple state elections indicate that numerous units routinely carry between 1,000 and over 4,000 voters. This systemic mismatch between voter population and administrative capacity has repeatedly forced voting and accreditation to extend deep into the night under emergency illumination, raising concerns ahead of upcoming general polls.
What caused the widespread delays observed during recent elections?
The root cause lies in legacy 'mother units' that were never properly decentralized when INEC created new polling points ahead of previous election cycles. Standard BVAS (Bimodal Voter Accreditation System) processing requires between 90 and 120 seconds per voter for biometric verification. Under optimal conditions without machine downtime, a single BVAS device can process a maximum of 180 to 240 voters within the statutory six-hour voting window.
When a single terminal is confronted with registers exceeding 2,000 names—such as the 2,352 registered voters recorded at Polling Unit 3 in Ota-Efun, Osun State—full participation becomes mathematically impossible within official hours. During the Osun governorship election, results from Ota-Efun and similar locations were uploaded to the IReV portal close to midnight, with voting continuing under rechargeable lamps and handheld generators long after statutory closing times.
How do legal frameworks and preliminary registers worsen the issue?
Under Section 19 of the Electoral Act, INEC is mandated to publish preliminary voter registers for public inspection and claims before statutory certification. However, audits of preliminary displays on the commission portal show massive structural imbalances persisting across geopolitical zones.
In Edo State, a single polling unit at Udomi Primary School carries 4,783 registered voters, a volume that would theoretically require nearly 20 BVAS terminals operating simultaneously. Similar mega-units have been documented in Kano, Kaduna, the Federal Capital Territory, and parts of the North-East and South-West, where dense urban centres sit metres away from newly created, underpopulated units.
Civil society coalitions, including Yiaga Africa and the Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room, have repeatedly warned that uneven voter distribution leads directly to voter suppression, long queues, and logistical strain. Electoral observers have urged the commission to carry out a comprehensive redistribution of voters to ensure orderly participation before subsequent national exercises.