The Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, has reaffirmed that Continuous Voter Registration would begin across the country, in April. Hide quoted text
Yakubu gave the assurance on Monday in Abuja at the commission’s quarterly meeting with the media.
He said that during the exercise, efforts would be made to ascertain dead persons on the voter register and eliminate them, adding that cases of transfers of voting points would also be handled.
“Election is essential based on a number of parameters. One of it is quality and credibility of voter register; the voter register is central to election,” he said.
“After the 2015 general elections, we are compelled to see if we can clean up the voter register. For instance, we have to remove the names of the deceased from the register.
“But this is easier said than done because sometimes you may know that the person is dead but the process of removing the name from the system is not that simple.
“This is simply because in some cases we receive report that candidates involve in an election were dead only for them to turn up at the commission few days later to say it is a lie that they are alive,’’ Yakubu said.
He said that the commission was also working on modalities that would assist it in the distribution of uncollected 7.8 million Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) during the voter registration.
“With 70 million registered voters at the moment, and by the time we do the Continuous Voter Registration fixed for April, the number will definitely go higher.
“Ours is the second largest democracy in the world, and we just have to plan,’’ he said.
On monitoring of political parties’ finance and campaigns funds, he said that only two political parties had complied with the law, which required them to submit their financial details to the commission six months after an election.
Yakubu listed the three audit reports expected from political parties as annual finance report, campaign expenditure and donations.
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