CVR: INEC Approves 73 Registration Centres for Delta As over 442,600 register in Delta

Omon-Julius Onabu in Asaba

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has ruled out house-to-house registration of voters but unveiled plans for town hall meetings to be held across the state as the Commission intensifies campaign for its Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) between March and July this year.

INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in Delta State, Mr. Monday Udom-Tom, stated this on during a meeting of stakeholders on “Pre-devolution of CVR to Registration Areas Level” held at the INEC state office in Asaba.
He said extant laws and INEC regulations do not recommend or support house-to-house registration of voters, adding that doing so would amount to running afoul of existing laws and regulations governing the CVR in the country.
Moreover, registration machines and devices are duly configured according to location of voter registration centres, the resident electoral commissioner said.

Udom-Tom disclosed that INEC has approved a total of 73 centres across Delta State for the purpose of the in-person or physical continuous voter registration in the country, stressing that the approval was based on wide consultations with critical stakeholders, including the various security agencies, in order to improve accessibility of voters to polling stations at minimal stress and security risk.

To drive home the determination of the Commission ensure that information about the CVR process gets to everyone in all nooks of crannies of the state, INEC has concluded plans to hold the INEC Federal Constituency CVR Town-hall/Clinic in locations across the ten recognized federal constituencies in Delta State, he further disclosed.

The constituencies for the meeting cum clinic in the state include Aniocha/Oshimili, Ika, Isoko, Ndokwa/Ukwuani, Ughelli/Udu and Okpe/Sapele/Uvwie. The others are Warri, Ethiope, Bomadi/Patani and Burutu constituencies.
While advising those who have done the registration online only to proceed to complete the process through physical registration, because registering online alone would not guarantee the eligibility of new voters, the state REC noted that the “registration is completely free”.

He also warned that on no account should the CVR be politicized or made partisan as it was entirely a civic duty and right of every Nigerian citizen that has attained the age of 18 years and above who had not previously registered to vote or have cogent issues with their permanent voter card.

However, Udom-Tom noted that although a total of 442,672 online had registered voters and 188,919 completed registration across Delta State at the time of the meeting on Tuesday, since June 2021, no specific statement could be deduced from those figures as the process was ongoing and real-time, noting that it is at the end of the exercise in July, when multiple registration figures and other inconsistencies have been weeded out, that an authentic figure could be confirmed.

The Delta State INEC REC, who assured that physically challenged citizens will continue to enjoy priority attention from INEC, said, “We are using this medium to invite all citizens from every work of life to attend the town hall meeting under the federal constituency. We appeal to stakeholders to show more commitment and interest in matters as critical as the voter registration, which forms the basis of democratic franchise.

“We also want to emphasize that the ongoing voter registration will benefit the state. It is not a partisan or political party affair. It should, therefore, be seen in the light of what is good for Delta State irrespective of party affiliation.”