The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, says the commission will soon begin the nationwide Continuous Voter Registration exerciseahead of the 2019 general election.
Yakubu said the goal of the INEC was to ensure that the voter registration was carried out in each polling unit to enable more people to get registered.
He, however, said due to the financial costs involved and the economic situation in the country, the commission needed to put relevant structures in place for a hitch-free exercise.
The INEC boss spoke when he visited PUNCH Place, the corporate headquarters of PUNCH Nigeria Limited in Magboro, Ogun State, on Friday.
According to him, voters’ apathy to registration has led to the unnecessary postponement of the exercise which he said costs the commission a lot.
He said, “We will soon roll out the Continuous Voter Registration exercise nationwide. The challenge for us is the level we are going to reach and the duration. Owing to the current state of the economy, it is going to cost us a lot. The duration is an issue because in the
FCT, when we extended the exercise by one day, it cost us over N8m simply because everything we do in Nigeria is costly.”
Yakubu said the commission could not make provisions for Diaspora voting because it was not in the Electoral Act.
He, however, said the country could emulate countries such as Niger and Kenya which
had started allowing their citizens to vote from abroad.
The INEC chairman explained that during the CVR exercise in Edo State, over 2, 000 voters registered twice while some of them did not provide complete information.
He said, “There has been the clamour for Diaspora voting. Anything that can help our democracy, the commission is for it. We can’t do Diaspora voting at present because the
constitution has to be amended.”
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