Mapping and suitability analysis of existing electoral polling units in Katsina local government area of Katsina State, Nigeria

Abstract

This research examined the mapping and analyses of existing polling units in the study area to provide scientific criteria for citing new polling units. The attribute data of the polling units were collected from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Katsina State, and spatial data was acquired through field observation, for geodatabase creation and query generation. For the suitability mapping, seven parameters criteria were adopted. The generated thematic maps of these criteria were standardised using the fuzzy logic approach. The geodatabase of the existing polling units created showed 281 polling units with their attributes. Also, the suitability map showed regions of suitability and unsuitability. The overlay map showed that 10 polling units were in the region of highly not suitable, 16 not suitable, 26 fairly suitable, then the rest were either highly suitable or suitable. It is recommended that INEC should adopt a scientific method in citing subsequent polling units.