The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has issued new date for the termination of the ongoing Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise. The CVR will end on July 31 and won’t resume until after the 2023 general elections. The Commission had earlier shifted the deadline of June 30, following an Order of Court that restrained it of ending the exercise.
According to a statement by INEC National Commissioner and Chairman Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, “the CVR is hereby extended for another two weeks until Sunday 31st July 2022, thereby bringing the total duration of the extension to 31 days (1st – 31st July 2022)”. According to the statement, “Commission met in an extraordinary session today, Friday 15th July 2022, and discussed among other things, the suspension of the ongoing Continuous Voter Registration (CVR).
“This followed the judgement delivered by the Federal High Court on Wednesday 13th July 2022 in which it dismissed the suit filed by the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) which is seeking an extension of the exercise beyond 30th June 2022. The Court has affirmed that INEC is at liberty to appoint a date of its choice to suspend the CVR, provided it is not later than 90 days before the date fixed for the General Election as provided in Sec. 9(6) of the Electoral Act 2022.
“The CVR is hereby extended for another two weeks until Sunday 31st July 2022, thereby bringing the total duration of the extension to 31 days (1st – 31st July 2022). The exercise has also been extended to eight hours daily from 9.00am – 5.00pm instead of the current duration of six hours (9.00am – 3.00pm) daily; and The exercise is also extended to include weekends (Saturdays and Sundays) as against only weekdays.”
Explaining the decision, the Commission said it has to among other things, “clean-up of the register to remove multiple registrants using the Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS); “Consolidate the national register of voters (existing voters and new registrants) and display same on Polling Unit basis for each of the 8,809 Registration Areas (Wards) across the 774 Local Government Areas nationwide for public scrutiny. This lasts for a period of one week. On the basis of a new projection of 95 million voters, on the basis of 10 voters per page, the Commission has to print 9,500,000 pages for the display.”