Why we can’t extend voters registration – INEC

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Friday declared that it is relatively impossible to extend the Continuous Voters Registration, CVR, which was suspended on Sunday.

Recall that several concerned Nigerians had demanded that the CVR be extended to enable eligible would-be voters to register to participate in the coming elections.

But the Akwa Ibom State Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Mike Igini, who spoke on a Channels TV program on Friday, said the commission needed to suspend the exercise to enable it to begin other processes to weed out all multiple registrants.

He said, “Now that we have officially suspended the CVR process, we have to consolidate; aggregate the data and thereafter run the biometric accreditation system to weed out all multiple registrants.

“Thereafter, Section 19 [Electoral Act 2022] says we must do a one-week display of the voter register for the commission to accept claims; objections as it relates to either omitted names or names of individuals that ought not to be on that register as identified by people in the area.”