The Continuous Voters Registration, or CVR, which was halted on last Sunday, is essentially difficult to reinstate, according to a statement made by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Friday, August 5.
To allow eligible would-be voters to register to vote in the next elections, several worried Nigerians had urged that the CVR be extended.
However, Mike Igini, the Akwa Ibom State Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), stated that the commission needed to halt the activity so that it could start additional procedures to weed out all multiple registrants on a Channels TV programme on Friday.
The INEC Commissioner said;
Now that we have officially suspended the CVR process, we have to consolidate; aggregate the data and thereafter run the biometric accreditation system to weed out all multiple registrants.
Thereafter, Section 19 [Electoral Act 2022] says we must do a one-week display of the voter register for the commission to accept claims; objections as it relates to either omitted names or names of individuals that ought not to be on that register as identified by people in the area.
Earlier, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will scrupulously apply laws, particularly the Electoral Act, of 2022 without fear or favour to ensure free, fair, credible, inclusive, and transparent elections in 2023.
The INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, made this known on Wednesday, August 3, in Abuja, at the 4th Memorial Lecture in honour of the Late Director-General of The Electoral Institute (TEI), Prof. Abubakar Momoh, who died on May 29, 2017.
Yakubu was represented by Prof. Abdullahi Zuru, National Commissioner and Chairman, Board of Electoral Institute.
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Yakubu assured Nigerians that INEC has no preferred party or candidate, but shall only ensure that all valid votes count and the winners are decided solely by the voters.
The chairman said that as the 2023 general elections draw near, it was imperative for all stakeholders especially the political parties to note the major features introduced by the new Electoral Act 2022.
He also advised party leaders to note the possible implications of these changes on the upcoming elections, saying the happenings that accompanied the recent party primaries attest to this.
