Lagos, Kano, Delta Lead as INEC Registers 11 Million New Voters

•Insists no more extension after July 31 deadline

Chuks Okocha

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) yesterday disclosed that over 11 million new applicants have completed their voter registration.

The Commission also maintained that there would be no extension after the July 31 deadline it had given to end the exercise.

INEC also revealed that Lagos is presently leading in terms of the state with the number of completed registration with 508,936; followed by Kano with 500,207 and Delta with 481,929.

According to data released by the Commission, the total number of persons who have completed their registration was 11,011,119 as of Monday, July 25.

According to details released by the Commission, 3,391,940 started their registration online while 7,619,179 carried out their registration physically.

It also disclosed that youths aged between 18 and 35 constitutes the highest number of completed registrations with a total of 7,828,570.

INEC had earlier fixed June 30 as the deadline for the ongoing CVR ahead of the 2023 elections.

But a Federal High Court in Abuja stopped the Commission from ending the exercise, following a suit filed against the electoral umpire by Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) and 185 persons. This made the Commission to extend the exercise by two weeks which ends on July 31.

However, the Resident Electoral Commissioner, INEC FCT, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, while speaking at a press conference in Abuja, stressed that the deadline for the registration remains July 31. Bello said all CVR activities except the collection of already printed PVCs would be suspended on Sunday July 31, adding that the commission increased the closing hours to 5pm daily including Saturdays and Sundays.

He said, “The number of people who registered and whose registration have been invalidated is becoming alarming. A lot of people have registered in one or two registration centres.

“They will get nothing by doing so, whatever their intentions were, because at the end of the day, they will be declared as people without PVCs at all.

“Any double or triple registration is null and void, we will go through our machines after these exercise and clean our register so that we can come up with the list of people who genuinely are going to vote in 2023.

“So let me appeal to people that they should always tell our staff at registration centres exactly what they want to do – whether they have never registered before, they have lost their cards, it is defaced, or they want transfer from one place to another.’’

He appealed to residents to patronize centres close to their locations, adding that there was no need for people in the suburbs to go all the way to INEC’s office in Area 10.

Meanwhile, 10 pro-election civil society groups have called on President Muhammadu Buhari to quickly appoint replacements for Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) whose tenure have expired

In a statement by the civil society groups, they said Buhari should as a matter of urgency expedite the nomination of individuals with unquestionable integrity, professional competence, experienced and with political neutrality as INEC Resident Electoral Commissioners;

Furthermore, they urged the president to be guided by the judgment of the Federal High Court on affirmative action wherein the court directed that all appointments must comply with the 35 per cent affirmative action for women.

The statement was signed by Yiaga Africa, International Press Centre. Nigerian Women’s Trust Fund, Centre of Media and Society, The Albino Foundation, Elect Her, The Kukah Centre, Partners for Electoral Reform and Inclusive Friends Association

According to the statement, “No doubt, the exit of the RECs creates a leadership vacuum in those states that begs for urgent action from the President and National Assembly.

“The appointment of RECs has become very urgent considering the Commission is entering a critical phase in the preparations for the 2023 general elections, particularly with the ongoing Continuous Voter Registration.”