The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says over 62,698 persons in Anambra are involved in double or multiple registrations in the first phase of the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR).
INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, disclosed this on Friday at the commission’s emergency meeting with leaders of political parties in Abuja.
Yakubu said that the double and multiple registrations were discovered during the process of cleaning up the registration data.
He recalled that before the end of the first quarter of the CVR nationwide, INEC had devolved the exercise to the Wards or Registration Areas in the state.
The INEC chairman stressed that the conclusion of the registration was followed by the clean-up of the data to remove the names of ineligible registrants before the printing of the Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs).
“In Anambra State, a total of 138,802 citizens completed the registration, including applications for transfer and request for replacement of lost, damaged or defaced PVCs as required by law.
“However, in the process of cleaning up the registration data, we discovered that many previously registered persons re-registered afresh.
“As a testimony to the effectiveness of our new system for checking double and multiple registrations, the commission found out that some 62,698 persons who were already registered voters in Anambra State went ahead to register again.
“These double or multiple registrations are invalid by law. We have archived these registrations and will not print new PVCs for them.
“Their old PVCs remain valid and they can use them to vote at the polling units where they registered and probably voted in previous elections.
“The same clean-up exercise is going on nationwide. As soon as it is over, the commission will provide further details to Nigerians on the situation, in other states of the federation and action to be taken on the matter.
“Let me remind all Nigerians that the law prohibits double registration,” he added.
Yakubu noted that the deployment of technology, including the online pre-registration, had simplified the process and made voter registration in Nigeria easier.
He also stated that the same technology had made it easier for INEC to detect multiple registrations.
“Consequently, the number of valid registrants in Anambra State at the end of the first quarter of the CVR exercise on Septemner 5 is 77,475.
“This figure has been added to the existing register of 2,447,996 eligible voters used for the 2019 General Elections.
“Accordingly, the number of registered voters in Anambra State now stands at 2,525,471,” Yakubu said.
He said that INEC would provide a detailed breakdown of the figure for public notice in the days ahead.
The INEC chairman stressed that the commission was presently working on the printing of the PVCs.
“We shall use various channels, including e-mails and text messages, to contact the new voters to collect their PVCs before the elections,” the chairman assured.
On the preparations for the state elections, Yakubu said that INEC had almost completed the recruitment of ad-hoc staff required for the exercise, adding that in all, about 26,000 election duty staff were required.
Yakubu noted that although there were still some minor shortfalls, INEC believed that it would complete the recruitment on time for their training, scheduled to commence on October 19.
“The training of other categories of staff, such as Electoral Officers (Eos) and Assistant Electoral Officers (AEOs) has been completed, while the training of Supervisory Presiding Officers (SPOs) will commence soon,” he added.
Credit: Nigerian Tribune