Although turnout improved, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has expressed worry about voter apathy 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).

The commission emphasized that no voter was moved from their original voting place in a press release signed by Wilfred Ifogah, Acting Director of Voter Education and Publicity. In order to ease traffic, INEC only established split polling stations in busy areas with over 1,250 registered voters. The extra units were situated within the same building, barely a few meters from the original polling places.

The commission highlighted that the voter registration had been posted at specified polling places four days prior to the election to allow for verification, even though it conceded that some voters had trouble finding their assigned polling places. It further stated that between February 18 and 21, impacted voters received emails and text messages reminding them of the locations of their split polling units.

While acknowledging a notable improvement over the 2022 Area Council elections, INEC stated that it was still concerned about voter indifference. The commission claims that more than 239,210 people, or around 15% of the 1,680,315 registered voters in the FCT, cast ballots in the 2026 elections, up from 148,685 voters (9.4%) in the 2022 elections.

The electoral body affirmed that it had successfully held elections for 62 councillor seats and chairmanships in the six Area Councils. Except for Kuje Area Council, which was declared at around 3:30 p.m. on Sunday due to collation difficulties, results were revealed late Saturday.

On election day, all polling places were completely functioning by 10:00 a.m., according to INEC’s Election Operations Dashboard, with roughly 45% of them opening by 8:30 a.m.

Additionally, the commission revealed that 93% of polling unit results had been posted for public viewing on the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal as of 2:00 p.m. on Sunday.

INEC praised the peaceful behavior of the FCT people during the exercise and ascribed the delay in announcing the Kuje Area Council result to the challenging topography in Kabi Ward, which hindered the final collation process.