2023: INEC Boss advises voters on early registration

The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC has expressed optimism that the new technology introduced into the Continuous Voter Registration, CVR had positioned it to better deliver on its mandate.

The Chairman of the commission, Professor Mahmood Yakubu said this when he led a delegation of the National Elections Commission of Liberia to the CVR physical registration centre at its Federal Capital Territory headquarters.

He said with the new technology, INEC had been able to eliminate the crowd at registration centres.

“So far, so good, quite a number of the pre-registrants have come on appointment to complete their registration. A number have also come to register physically because there is an option of physical registration, in addition to the completion of the online registration.

“So far, you don’t see the kind of crowds that we used to see during registration. Recall that between 2017 and 2018, we conducted a CVR over a period of 16 months and we learned from the experience of that exercise.

“That is why we now introduced more technology into the process. As you can see, the queue has disappeared and we are able to serve Nigerians better for that reason,” Yakubu explained.

He stated that INEC would maintain the momentum until the end of the exercise on June 30, 2022, when it would suspend the process to enable the commission to compile the voter register, ahead of the 2023 general elections.

Yakubu said the essence of the tour was to provide field experience to the National Elections Commission of Liberia delegation, which was in Nigeria to understudy INEC’s voter registration system.

The chairperson of NEC-Liberia, Davidetta Lansanah, commended the leadership of INEC for sharing Nigeria’s experience with them.

He said the experience learned during the study tour would help Liberia in adopting the CVR in their country.

“There are lessons that have been learned since we have been on this tour. We have seen that the electoral commission of Nigeria has invested so much in technology, in terms of the availability of the technology to Nigerians,” Lansanah added.