Low voter participation dominates Gwarinpa, Maitama polls despite early start, tight security

Voter turnout remained significantly low across several polling units in Gwarinpa and Maitama on Saturday despite the early commencement of voting and a visible security presence.

At Polling Unit 041, located at Government Secondary School, Gwarinpa, out of 767 registered voters, only 12 had cast their ballots as of 11:39 am.

Similarly, at Polling Unit 004 within the same location, 884 registered voters were expected, but just 14 had voted as of 11:42 am. Polling Unit 039 recorded 11 voters out of 748 registered as of 11:40 am.

Voting commenced around 8 am at Polling Unit 040, where 763 voters were registered. However, only 16 votes had been cast by late morning.

At the Staff Quarters polling unit in Gwarinpa, 24 voters had voted out of 760 registered voters as of the time of filing this report.

BusinessDay observed that across the Gwarinpa polling centres visited, election officials and observers outnumbered voters for most of the morning.

Also at Polling Unit 06 in Games Village, which has over 5,000 accredited voters, slightly above 100 voters had cast their ballots as of 12:25 pm.

The trend was similar in Maitama, where turnout remained sparse across multiple polling units.

At Polling Unit 124, Taraba Close, Maitama, only five out of 334 accredited voters had voted as of 12:55 pm. Polling Unit 024 recorded 16 votes from 758 registered voters.

On Cuito Street, Maitama, Polling Unit 125 had six voters out of 355 registered. Another polling unit in the area recorded 12 votes from 498 registered voters.

At Polling Unit 132, Lake Chad Crescent, only six voters had cast their ballots as of 1:20 pm, while Polling Unit 133 recorded just one voter out of 491 registered as of the time of observation.

Despite the low participation across both districts, the elections were being conducted peacefully, with a noticeable security presence maintaining order at the various polling units.