 The Independent National Electoral Commission in River State says it will commence expansion of polling units for eligible voters. The resident Electoral Commission in River State, Obo Ifang, in a media briefing at the state secretariat in Port Harkat, said the exercise of creating polling units was last carried out 25 years ago. He noted that INEC currently have 4,442 but intends to convert 2,424 voting points in the state to full-fledged polling units, adding that when the proposed polling units are verified, a total number of 6,866 will be the new polling units in the state. The Independent National Electoral Commission has commenced activities that would lead to the decongestion of polling units and ultimately increase the number of polling units in the country. Please recall that during the last general election, all polling units in Nigeria that had more than 750 registered voters were qualified for the establishment of a voting point. INEC looks to convert 2,424 voting points in River State to fully-fledged polling units. When these new proposed polling units are verified and ratified by the Commission, the total number of polling units in River State will be 6,866. Those numbers, we believe, would be adequate to serve the current registered voters of 3,215,273. I highlighted some of the places where the units will be cited in line with INEC guidelines. The citing of polling units, INEC is bound by certain guidelines set out by the Commission. These include that the polling units shall be in public places, preferably centrally located and accessible. They shall be in non-sectarian locations such as schools, town or community halls, health centres, court premises and public recreational centres. They shall also be as much as possible located in spacious facilities to adequately sit election officials, political party agents, election observers and voters if necessary. Similarly, INEC cannot cite polling units in private compounds, royal palaces, residences of government officials, political party buildings, places designated for religious worship or any building into which a voter may, under any circumstances, be denied access except as prescribed by law or regulation. And they cannot also be cited in buildings or facilities that are in dispute. The reverse INAS bus further announced that continuous voter registration will commence on June 28th across the country, adding that all new registrants and current voters will be transferred to the new polling units as and when ready.