INEC registers 10m new voters, fixes date to suspend Continuous Voter Registration

Over 10 million Nigerians have been registered in the ongoing nationwide Continuous Voter Registration, the Independent National Electoral Commission said on Friday.
This was just as the Commission also announced date for the suspension of the CVR.
The Chairman of the INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, said at the commission’s quarterly consultative meeting with security agencies under the auspices of Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security in Abuja that the over 10 million new voters people were registered between April 2017, when the CVR commenced, and end of June 2018.
With the new registered voters, Nigeria now has 80 million registered voters.
yakuza said: “As at June 22, 2018 fresh registration was 9,922,619; PVC Collection, 576,346; request for transfer, 489,354; and request for replacement of PVCs, 766,435.
“What this means is that since the commencement of CVR on April 27, 2017, about 10 million Nigerians have been registered and this will be added to existing register of 70 million voters.
“This means that as we approach 2019 general elections, Nigeria will have voter register of at least 80 million.”
Yakubu reiterated INEC’s commitment to transparency in the conduct of elections and declaration of results.
He said one of the things the commission had consistently been doing was to issue copies of elections’ result sheets to agents of political parties at that level.
He said following stakeholders’ demand for transparency in the electoral process, INEC responded by displaying result for each polling unit immediately after counting of ballots for public information.
Yakubu said: “Having found this as a useful way of enhancing citizens’ mandate protection, we took it a step further by introducing the EC60E.
“The form is a large poster reflecting the result in each polling unit as recorded on the EC8A shared with agents of political parties.”
Responding, the National Security Adviser, Major General Mohammed Monguno (retd), pledged that necessary security support would be given to ensure the success of the Ekiti governorship election and 2019 general elections.
Monguno, who was represented by Assistant Inspector-General of Police, Peace Abdallah, expressed confidence that the INEC would continue to conduct credible elections.
Meanwhile, INEC also said on Friday that it would suspend the ongoing CVR on August 17 until after the 2019 general elections.
The commission disclosed this in a statement issued in Abuja by Prince Solomon Soyebi, National Commissioner and Chairman, information and Voter Education Committee.
Soyebi, however, said the collection of Permanent Voter Cards would continue until a week to the commencement of general elections on February 16, 2019.
The decision, according to him, was taken following consultative meetings the commission had with major stakeholders in Nigeria in the electoral process.
INEC has within the week met with leaders of political parties, the media, Civil Society Organisations and security agencies.
He said the stakeholders stressed the need to comply with statutory timelines and unanimously agreed that sufficient time be given between the capture of data, its processing and the production of the PVCs.
Soyebi said: “Given the activities necessary for this, the commission, acting on the recommendation of the stakeholders has decided to suspend the ongoing CVR at 3p.m on Friday, August 17, until after the general elections.
“The collection of PVCs will, however, continue until a week to the commencement of general elections on February 16, 2019.”
Soyebi said the Commission would overhaul and intensify its publicity initiatives to ensure that all qualified Nigerians who wish to register were able to do so and collect their PVCs before the general elections.
This, according to him, was in consonance with INEC policy and advice of all the stakeholders.
The commissioner appealed to all citizens for cooperation and understanding.
“The stakeholders enjoined INEC to continue to do more to ensure free, fair and credible elections,” he said.
Soyebi noted that some of the issues discussed during the consultative meetings included matters arising from the collection and alleged cloning of PVCs.
He explained that other issue discussed was INEC’s preparations for Ekiti and Osun States governorship elections as well as for the 2019 general elections.