..Assures no IDP will be disenfranchised
Stories by Ezeocha Nzeh
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has disclosed of plans to publish a comprehensive list of registered voters in Nigeria, ahead of the 2023 poll.
The commission had at the close of its continuous Voter Registration CVR) exercise in June announced a projection of over 93 million to be added to the already existing list of registered voters in the country, even as pressure has continued to mount on it the resume the exercise to enable more Nigerians to he captured and register to vote in the election
Declaring it’s plan to publish the bn others list, the INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, said at the stakeholders’ validation meeting for the 2022 revised framework and regulations for voting by Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Abuja on Tuesday, that the list would integrate the fresh voters registered at the just concluded Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) to the existing register of over 84 million voters.
He faulted claim by a section of the civil society groups that INEC was not willing to display the register.
“At a media briefing yesterday, the commission was accused of failure to display the voters’ register as provided by Section 19(1) of the Electoral Act 2022. This claim is incorrect.
“What the commission displayed for claims and objections in our local government area offices nationwide for a period of one week, from Aug. 15 to Aug. 21, was not the entire register of voters.
“It was the list of fresh registrants at the end of the fourth and last quarter of the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise covering the period from April 11 to July 31.
“This has been the practice for several years,” he said.
The INEC boss, who noted that the commission had displayed the register three times: from Sept. 24 to Sept. 30, 2021 (First Quarter), Dec. 24 to Dec. 30, 2021 (Second Quarter) and March 26 to – April 1 2022 (Third Quarter), said that a comprehensive schedule of the CVR and the display of the register was shared with stakeholders at the commission’s quarterly meeting just before the inception of the exercise in June 2021.
“We wish to assure Nigerians that the commission will display the comprehensive register in all the 8,809 wards and 774 local government areas/area councils nationwide as envisaged in Section 19(1) of the Electoral Act, 2022.
“This will integrate fresh voters registered under the last CVR into the existing register of over 84 million voters.
“The date will be announced as soon the commission completes the ongoing Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS) to weed out all double/multiple as well as ineligible registrants.
“We appeal to some of our friends in civil society organisations to be guided accordingly,” Yakubu said.
