The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has provided an explanation for why it is not possible to expand the voter registration drive nationwide.
During an interview on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Friday, August 5, Akwa Ibom State Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) Mike Igini stated that extending the voter registration drive will hinder its preparations for the 2023 general elections.
Igini 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.
“And how do you do that? You have to produce the preliminary register of voters for this purpose which means they have to be millions of these would-be voters. That will be posted in the entire wards and local governments of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and that is a huge work.â€
