Voter Apathy In FCT Polls: We Recorded Improvement In 2026 – INEC

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said that despite reported voter apathy in last Saturday’s Area Council elections in Abuja, Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory (FCT), there was significant improvement compared to previous elections.

INEC, in a statement by Acting Director, Voter Education and Publicity (VEP) Wilfred Ifogah, said a total of 148,685 voters (about 9.4% of registered voters) participated in the 2022 elections in the territory, compared to over 239,210 voters (approximately 15% of the 1,680,315 total registered voters in the FCT) who voted this year.

The commission also addressed claims in some quarters that some voters were disenfranchised due to migration to another or new polling unit different from their original polling units.

According to the commission, voters were not migrated from their original polling units; rather, large polling units with voter registrations of over 1,250 voters were split to avoid congestion on election day.

“The split units are located a few meters away from the original polling units within the same premises,” it explained.

The commission claimed that it displayed the register of voters at designated centres or split polling units four days before the Area Council elections to enable voters to 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. These were intended solely as reminders to assist them in identifying their current polling units,” INEC further explained.

It nonetheless acknowledged the challenges encountered by some voters in locating their designated polling units.

The commission stated that its Election Operations Dashboard showed that 45% of polling units were open for voting as of 8:30 a.m., while all polling units were confirmed open by 10:00 a.m. on election day.

According to INEC, as of 2:00 p.m. on Sunday, February 22, the upload of polling unit results to the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal had reached 93%, and could be accessed by members of the public.

The commission 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 appreciates the electorate in the FCT for their cooperation and participation throughout the process.

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

The results of the chairmanship positions in five Area Councils and 62 councillorship seats were announced late Saturday, except that of Kuje Area Council, which was announced at 3:30 p.m. on Sunday.