The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu on Tuesday has denied claims that it violated the Electoral Act by not displaying the total register of voters.
Yakubu noted that what the Commission displayed in its local government area offices from August 15 to 21 was not the entire register of voters, but the list of fresh registrants as of the 4th and last quarter of the Continuous Voters Register (CVR).
Chronicle NG reports that a coalition of civil society organisations held a media briefing on September 5 accusing INEC of failing to display the voters’ register as stated in Sec 19(1) of the Electoral Act 2022.
Reacting to the CSOs, Yakabu said, “We wish to assure Nigerians that INEC will display the comprehensive register in all the 8809 Wards and 774 LGAs nationwide as envisaged in Sec 19(1) of the Electoral Act 2022.
“This will integrate fresh voters under the last CVR exercise to the existing register of over 84 million voters. The date will be announced as soon as the Commission completes the ongoing Automated Biometric Identification System, to weed out all double/multiple registrants.”
Yakubu who spoke in Abuja at the ongoing Stakeholder Validation Meeting for the 2022 Revised Framework and Regulations for Voting by Internally Displaced Persons assured Nigerians that provision will be made for all citizens to vote.
He noted that INEC will communicate the date that the total registered voters will be published after cleaning its data of double or multiple registrants.
He said that the commission had displayed the register three times: from Sept. 24 to Sept. 30, 2021 (First Quarter), December 24 to December 30, 2021 (Second Quarter) and March 26 to – April 1 2022 (Third Quarter).
Yakubu said that a comprehensive schedule of the CVR and the display of the register were 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,” he said.
