The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu has assured that the comprehensive list of registered voters in Nigeria would be published soon.
By the timetable of and schedule of activities for the 2023 general elections earlier published by INEC, the publication of the official register of voters for the election is due on 12 January 2023.
In August, INEC published a “preliminary” register of voters in its Local Government Area offices.
Addressing a stakeholders’ validation meeting on the 2022 Revised Framework and Regulations for Voting by Internally Displaced Persons in Abuja on Tuesday, Yakubu said the commission has been accused of not being willing to display the comprehensive voters’ register as provided by Section 19(1) of the Electoral Act, 2022.
He explained: “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 15 to 21 August — 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 11 April to 31 July.
“This has 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 envisaged in Section 19(1) of the Electoral Act, 2022.
“This will integrate fresh voters registered under the last CVR 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 as well as ineligible registrants.
“We appeal to some of our friends in civil society organisations to be guided accordingly”.
