Election Day Procedures

Polling unit shall open for accreditation by 8.am on Election Day, and every voter is expected to be on the queue with their Permanent Voter Card (PVC) to be duly accredited.At 1:00 pm or whenever the last person on the accreditation queue is accredited, the Presiding Officer shall declare accreditation closed but ensure that all […]

Polling unit shall open for accreditation by 8.am on Election Day, and every voter is expected to be on the queue with their Permanent Voter Card (PVC) to be duly accredited.
At 1:00 pm or whenever the last person on the accreditation queue is accredited, the Presiding Officer shall declare accreditation closed but ensure that all eligible voters already on the queue by 1.00 pm are accredited.
Only persons with Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) will be accredited by the use of card reader.
After verification of the voter through card reader, and in the event that the voter’s fingerprints fail to be authenticated, an Incident Form will be filled for the voter and he/she will be allowed to vote when voting proper commences.
Voting shall commence at 1:30pm or whenever accreditation ends. Voters are expected to queue once more to cast their votes.
The Presiding Officer shall allow a voter who is blind or is otherwise unable to distinguish symbols or who suffers from any other physical disability to be accompanied into the polling unit/voting point and be assisted to vote by a person chosen by him/her, other than a poll agent.
Visually-impaired registered voters may, where available, use the certain facilities that will assist them in voting.
A voter shall not make any mark on the ballot paper by which he/she may be identified. If he/she does so, such ballot paper shall be rejected provided that any print resulting from the staining of the finger-print of the voter in the voting compartment shall not be deemed to be a mark for identification.
After casting his/her ballot, the voter is free to remain within the
Polling Station to witness the sorting and counting of votes and the announcement of results provided he/she is orderly.
After every voter on the queue has voted, the Presiding Officer shall declare voting closed.
The collation and declaration of election results shall be done at the following levels depending on the type of election Registration Area – RA/Ward, Local Government Area, Federal Constituency, Senatorial District.
The colour of ballot paper for presidential election is RED, while that of the Senate is BLACK and the House of Reps ballot paper is GREEN. The ballot box of each of the three elections is marked in the same colour with the ballot paper.
There shall be four INEC staff at every polling unit, and one of them is called the overseer. He/she is responsible for showing voters the appropriate ballot box to drop a particular ballot paper.