The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says it will soon publish the comprehensive list of registered voters, integrating fresh voters registered under the last Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) to the existing register of over 84 million voters.
INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, disclosed this on Tuesday in Abuja at the Stakeholders Validation meeting for the 2022 Revised Framework and Regulations for Voting by Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).
According to him, it has become necessary to make the important clarification in respect of a statement attributed to a section of the Civil Society Organisations.
“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;
“but 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.
“Earlier, the Commission had displayed the register three times: 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).
“A comprehensive schedule of the CVR exercise and the display of the register was shared with stakeholders at our quarterly meeting just before inception of the exercise in June last year.
“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 exercise to 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. (NAN) (www.nannews.ng)