IMO State has the highest number of polling units without registered voters, according to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

A list released by INEC on Monday, February 13, show that there are 38 polling units without registered voters in Imo State, the highest in the country.

The Commission said the 2023 general elections will not hold in 240 polling units, across 28 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), which do not have registered voters.

According to INEC, the absence of registered voters in the polling units is largely due to security reasons.

Imo State is followed closely by Taraba, with 34 polling units. Next are Borno, Katsina and Abia with 12 polling units each.

The FCT, Nasarawa and Yobe have 11 each. Niger, Kano and Benue have 10.

Kaduna and Sokoto each have eight polling units without registered voters.

Also, Bauchi, Plateau and Anambra have five polling units where elections will not hold.

Enugu, Ebonyi, Delta, and Adamawa have four inactive polling units each.

Ondo and Bayelsa have two polling units without registered voters, while Jigawa and Lagos have three, respectively.

Zamfara, Edo, Kwara and Rivers are states with the lowest number of inactive polling units. Each of them has only one unit without registered voters.

The states that do not have inactive polling units are Ekiti, Gombe, Cross River, Ogun, Kogi, Oyo and Osun.

Excluding the 240 inactive polling units, the election will take place in about 176,606 polling units across the country.

It would be recalled that in 2021, INEC created additional 57,023 polling units, raising the number of polling units nationwide from 119,973 to 176,846.

According to INEC Chairman Mahmood Yakubu, the Commission redistributed voters to polling units to avoid congestion.

However, no new registrants chose any of the 240 inactive polling units during the registration process.

“Where they are separated by distance, this must be done after consultation with the voters. This has been done by our state offices nationwide. However, there are 240 polling units without registered voters spread across 28 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

“No new registrants chose the polling units, and no voters indicated an interest in transferring to them during the last Continuous Voter Registration (CVR), mainly for security reasons. This means that no elections will hold in these polling units,” he said.

INEC will conduct the Presidential and National Assembly polls on February 25, while the governorship and state assembly elections will hold on March 11, 2023.