About 400 thousand voters will be disenfranchised in Osun governorship election — INEC
By Ismail Azeez, Osogbo
The Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC) on Monday disclosed that four hundred thousand (400,000) voters would be disenfranchised in the forthcoming gubernatorial election in Osun state over failure to complete their voter registration with the commission.
The commission said that only two hundred and seventy-nine thousand (279,000) voters were able to complete the continuous voter registration exercise in the state.
Speaking, at the election stakeholders forum held at INEC state headquarters, the Resident Electoral Commissioner in Osun State, Prof. Abdulganiy Olayinka said that only one-third of the people that started online voter registration visited the INEC officer to complete their registration.
He said, as at today two hundred and seventy-nine thousand (279,000) people have completed their voter registration out of the six hundred and thirty-eight thousand seven hundred thirty-five (638,735) that were registered.
“In Osun State, about 400,000 people have been disenfranchised themselves because they refused to compete their registration.”
He noted that the election could only be successful, generally acceptable, and meet the international best practices if there is a credible registered of voters.
He charged all the stakeholders to sensitise their wards who have attained the age of 18 and above to use the opportunity of the ongoing continuous voter registration exercise to register.
“It is my great pleasure to welcome you all to this important stakeholders’ meeting. It is aimed purposely to brief the critical stakeholders in the electoral process in the State on the activities of the Commission so far which are geared towards undertaking a free, fair, credible, transparent, all-inclusive, and conclusive governorship election come Saturday, 16th July 2022.
“As Osun State 2022 governorship election draws nearer, with just One Hundred and Sixteen (116) days left, you will agree with me that the convocation of this meeting is not only appropriate but very apt. The long-adopted policy of the Commission as you all know is that critical stakeholders are always got involved in its election planning and other electoral activities throughout the electoral cycle to give them a sense of belonging to succeed.
“Devolution of Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) Exercise to Registration Areas/Wards: I would like at this juncture to inform you that the Commission Headquarters, INEC Abuja has graciously approved that the current ongoing CVR at the State Office and the INEC LGA Offices be devolved and taken to the three hundred and thirty-two(332) Registration Areas/Electoral Wards in the State, commencing from Thursday, 24th and Wednesday, 30th March 2022 between the hours of 9:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m.
“This decision of the Commission is aimed at ensuring that all eligible voters who have not or could not perform their civic duty of registering voters due to distance are provided with the opportunity to do so with ease.
“It is in the light of this that I am urging and appealing to this gathering to assist the Commission by further sensitising and mobilising the public to take this advantage to either register or transfer their voting rights to Polling Units, especially the newly created PUs close to their residence as doing so would enable the Commission to leverage on having even distribution of 500 voters in each Polling Unit with its attendant benefit of completing the voting process in the daytime.
“This would prevent night marauders from unleashing their havoc and make election inconclusive,” he added.
