The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, on Monday said it found 1,126,359 million voter registrations invalid and delisted them from the voters’ register.
The commission said the faulty registrations occured between 28th June 2021 and 14th January 2022 during the Continuous Voter Registration, CVR, exercise where a total of 2, 523,458 fresh registrations were carried out.
The invalidation followed renewed efforts by INEC to clean up the voters register ahead of the 2023 general election.
INEC’s National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, in a statement, said “the cleaning up of the register of voters using the Automated Biometric Identification System, ABIS, is ongoing since the suspension of the Continuous Voter Registration, CVR on 31st July 2022.
“Earlier, the Commission informed Nigerians that out of the 2, 523,458 (Two million, five hundred and twenty-three thousand, four hundred and fifty-eight) fresh registrants that registered between 28th June 2021 and 14th January 2022, 1,126,359 (One million, one hundred and twenty-six thousand, three hundred and fifty-nine) records were found to be invalid and consequently delisted.”
Okoye added that the ABIS for the period – 15th January to 31st July 2022 is almost completed.
“Several double, multiple and ineligible registrants have also been detected and invalidated. These include entries that fail to meet the Commission’s business rules. The Commission takes this responsibility seriously because a credible register is at the heart of electoral integrity.
“As soon as the process is concluded, the Commission will provide the public with full information as usual. Thereafter, valid registrants will be added to the existing national register of voters before publishing same nationwide for scrutiny, claims and objections by citizens as required by section 19 (1) of the Electoral Act 2022,” he said.
The commission’s spokesperson also reassured Nigerians that a thorough process is being undertaken to clean up the registration data.
On the collection of Permanent Voters’ Cards, PVCs, for all valid registrants, he assured that they will be available for collection by the end of October/early November as promised.