The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, says it is trying to publish an exhaustive list of all the nation’s registered voters.
At a stakeholder validation meeting on the 2022 updated framework and norms for voting by internally displaced persons (IDPs), held in Abuja on Tuesday, INEC chairman Prof. Mahmood Yakubu made this statement.
In its LGA offices, the commission had released a “preliminary” voter list in August.
Prof Yakubu refutes the claims that the commission was not willing to display the comprehensive 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 August 15 to August 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 exercise, covering the period from April 11 to July 31.This had been the practice for several years”.
“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 contained in section 19(1) of the Electoral Act, 2022″, he said
The new voters who registered under the most recent CVR to the current register of more than 84 million voters would be included in the list, according to Prof. Yakubu.
The date would be made public as soon as the commission has finished using the ongoing automated biometric identification system (ABIS) to filter out any multiple and ineligible registrants, according to INEC Chairman.
The official register of voters will be issued on January 12, 2023, according to the commission’s schedule of events for the general election in 2023.
