The Independent National Electoral Commission has revealed that it is planning voting centres for two million internally displaced persons in the country ahead of the 2023 general elections.
According to The PUNCH, this was confirmed by the Chairman, Board of Survey and Technical Committee on Equipment Acquisition, INEC, Mohammed Haruna, on Monday.
According to Haruna, INEC will hold elections in IDP camps where they still exist despite the widespread insecurity in the country, but will take a different approach for the internally displaced people who have settled in communities.
The INEC official did not specify how many displaced people would be affected, but preliminary data suggests that as many as two million people living in camps and communities could be affected.
He stated, ‘’The issue of people voting in IDP camps is complicated. When insecurity was essentially restricted to the North-East ahead of the last general elections in 2019, it was easy to create IDPs camps. This time, however, many of the camps in the North-East and the few elsewhere have closed and most of the displaced persons are dispersed inside communities away from where they registered.
‘’Besides, insecurity has now spread nationwide. We will conduct elections in IDP camps where they still exist. But for the internally displaced persons living in communities, we need a different approach. We will do our best to see that no one is disenfranchised.’’
