Voters Registration: House urges INEC to extend exercise by 60 days
By Tom Okpe
The House of Representatives has urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to extend the ongoing voters registration deadline by another 60 days from June 30, 2022, to enable all Nigerians register conveniently.
The House took this decision, following the adoption of a motion of urgent public importance sponsored by Benjamin Kalu (APC, Abia) at plenary on Wednesday.
Moving the motion, Kalu noted that the ongoing Continuous Voters Registration (CVR) by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is scheduled to end on 30 June 2022, ahead of the 2023 General Elections.
He noted that the decision to suspend the voters’ registration is in line with the provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022 which requires INEC to suspend voters’ registration at least 60 days before an election.
The lawmaker said the House is: “Aware that in April 2022, INEC declared that about 42% of the voter registrations recorded since the commencement of Continuous Voters Registration on 28 June, 2021 were invalid with about 20 million unclaimed Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) Cognizant of the large numbers of unregistered eligible voters willing to be registered as evidenced by crowd seen at various registration centres resulting in congestion.
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“Concerned by reports of shortages of voter registration machines, inadequate manpower and personnel at registration centres which may lead to frustrations among prospective registrants and in some cases, unrest at some registration centres.
“Also aware of calls from concerned Citizens and Civil Societies urging INEC to extend the voters’ registration deadline to accommodate eligible voters desiring to register for their Permanent Voters Cards.
“Further aware that the right to vote is critically important to the health and legitimacy of our democracy, as well as electoral integrity.
“Also cognizant that if nothing is done to improve the shortage of voter registration equipment and extend the deadline for voters registration, millions of Nigerians will be disenfranchised thus jeopardizing the integrity of the 2023 General Elections.”
The House while adopting the motion, mandated the Committee on Electoral Matters to “engage the Independent National Electoral Commission to examine and proffer solutions to the shortage of registration machines and manpower and deploy an additional 30 voter registration machines in each local government area, train and deploy ad-hoc staff to improve the shortage of manpower at registration centres, provide security for the Ad-hoc staff and report back within two weeks.”
