INEC projects 20 million new voters as CVR begins today

By FRIDAY OLOKOR

The Independent National Electoral Commission will today (Monday), resume the Continuous Voter Registration ahead of the 2023 general elections.

Recall that the commission had created 56, 872 additional polling units across the country.

It  had also accredited 31 organisations to observe the CVR, while 20 more applications were being processed.

According to the commission, the registration, which will be carried out continuously for over a year until the third quarter of 2022, will be targeting at least 20 million new voters.

While threatening to prosecute any citizens who provided false information during the exercise, INEC had said it would be deploying 5346 officials to 2673 registration centres

The chairman of INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, also said the security of the personnel was very paramount.

He had said, “We are concerned about the security issues in some parts of the country. The commission would be deploying 5346 officials to 2673 registration centers. What happens if any of these staff is abducted?

“Our responsibility is to conduct credible election and also protect our staff. The security agencies are also facing challenges and there have been concerns that INEC officials might be target of criminals.”

He said the commission had also made robust provisions for Internally Displaced Persons who might have misplaced their Permanent Voter Cards due to insecurity.

The INEC boss stressed the need for massive advocacy and publicity to ensure that citizens are familiar with the new polling units ahead of the 2023 general elections.

“The success of the exercise depends to a considerable extent on citizens’ awareness through voter education. There will be new registrants, requests for intra-State and inter-State transfers as well as the replacement of voters’ cards as provided by law. (Adapted from The PUNCH)