INEC assures of registration of all eligible voters in Enugu
From Chinedu Nwafor Abakaliki
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has assured of the registration of all eligible voters in Enugu State, ahead of the 2023 general elections.
The State Resident Electoral Commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Dr Emeka Ononamadu gave the assurance on Friday while briefing Journalists on the ongoing continuous voters registration across the country.
Ononamadu said the commission was determined to ensure that all eligible voters were registered before the deadline of the voter registration exercise, adding that it had introduced 20 more registration points and over 50 voters status update points since the new surge of registrants started.
He said “there is no need to panic that some eligible voters will be excluded.”
He further said: “INEC practices inclusivity, that is one of the reason why new polling units were created to ensure more voters access to PUs to address low percentage of voters during elections.”
While commending the citizens for their interest in the continuous registration exercise, the INEC boss noted, “it is gladdening that from the first week of June 2022, CVR points in Enugu started recording huge turnout of fresh registrants and registered voters who came for PVC replacement, PU transfer and update of personal details.*
“We commend the citizenry that finally woke up and are expressing their trust in INEC systems by showing their interest to vote. At one end there is expression of trust after signing of the amended Electoral Act in which INEC joined Nigerians to advocate for major electoral law reforms and at another end citizens expressed new trust from their observation of seriousness with which many political parties attempted to adhere to the new provisions of the amended Electoral Act during their congresses and primaries, believing that such discipline and seriousness will be extended into 2023 general election.
“No matter what is responsible for the surge of prospective voters. It is a positive sign for Nigeria and the commission therefore INEC will not relent in registering every eligible citizens within time,” he added.
“We also encourage citizens that have registered before, who can do it on their own to check their voters status before attempting to register again since double registration of a violation of the law.
“Since we created the Centre to assist those who are coming for transfers, PVC replacement and personal data correction, the surge is being taken care of as many registrants who either have not come to collect their PVCs simply opted for a fresh registration
“That is why during the clean-up of registration in the first six months of this CVR, 46 percent of those that registered in Enugu were double registration and this invalid. This is above national average of 44.6 percent.
“We have embarked on renewed sensitization to discourage citizens for engaging in double registration to save the time required for fresh registrants to register and to avoid waste of scare public resources. The commission has regularly modified citizen that PVCs do not expire and as such there is no need for those who registered before to repeat the registration. Any rumor that PVCs of those that registered from 2011 expires is false and should be disregarded,” he said
On extending the date of the registration exercise, Dr Ononamadu said, “we have been flooded with series of requests for extension of the exercise and we have forwarded those requests to the commission and they are being reviewed.
