The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has expressed worry about voter apathy despite an increase in turnout and rejected allegations that voters were moved to different polling places during the February 21, 2026 Area Council elections in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Wilfred Ifogah, the Acting Director of Voter Education and Publicity, signed a press release in which the commission explained that no voter was moved from their original voting place. The additional units were situated within the same premises, only a few meters from the original polling places, and INEC clarified that it only established split voting units in busy areas with over 1,250 registered voters in order to alleviate traffic.
Although the commission confirmed that some voters had trouble finding their assigned polling places, it emphasized that the voter registration list had been posted at designated polling places four days before to the election to allow for verification. It further stated that between February 18 and 21, impacted voters received emails and text messages reminding them of the whereabouts of their divided voting places.
INEC stated that while voter apathy was still a concern, there had been a notable improvement over the 2022 Area Council elections. In 2026, more than 239,210 voters, or over 15% of the 1,680,315 registered voters in the FCT, cast ballots, up from 148,685 voters (9.4%) in 2022, according to the commission.
Elections for 62 councillor seats and chairmanships in the six Area Councils were successfully held, according to the electoral body. With the exception of Kuje Area Council, whose results were published at around 3:30 p.m. on Sunday due to collation delays, everything else was announced late Saturday.
On election day, around 45% of polling places opened at 8:30 a.m., and by 10:00 a.m., every polling place was functioning, according to INEC’s Election Operations Dashboard.
As of 2:00 p.m. on Sunday, the commission also revealed that 93% of polling unit results had been posted for public viewing on the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal.
INEC praised the peaceful behavior of the FCT people during the exercise and ascribed the delay in notifying the Kuje Area Council result to the challenging topography in Kabi Ward, which took longer to finalize.
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