TheCable

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has extended voting time in areas where the exercise was delayed as a result of the late arrival of electoral materials and related challenges.

Festus Okoye, the commission’s director of voter and publicity, announced this at a press briefing at the International Conference Center (ICC), Abuja.

Okoye said INEC reached the decision in order to avoid disenfranchisement of voters. The exercise scheduled for 8am, started hours behind schedule in different parts of the country.

He said the extension would be determined by the amount of time lost at the unit.

“What the commission has decided is that in any of the states where polls opened at 9’o clock, there will be an extension of one hour and it progresses that way,” he said.

“In relation to the opening of polls in some of the states of the federation, as of 12noon, we recorded 100% opening of polls, some of them we recorded over 90% opening of poll.

“Ninety percent of all the polling units In Anambra state had opened at 12 mid-day; in Edo, 97 percent; Ekiti, 100%; Katsina, 100 percent. Also 100 percent in Taraba.

“In a place like Adamawa state, we recorded, 34 percent opening of polls, in Akwa Ibom, 64 percent, Bauchi, 49 percent, in Bayelsa, 29 percent in Borno, and 62 percent in Gombe.”