With 395 days to the 2023 General Election, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has urged political parties to encourage and enlighten their members to get Voters card.
This is as the commission have also briefed civil society groups in the country on the plans to be taken for the effective and smooth running of the exercise.
The INEC chairman Professor Mahmoud Yakubu, stated this today during the first quarterly Quarterly Meeting between INEC and Civil society organisations at the INEC conference room, Abuja.
The INEC chairman said that the year 2022 was going to be a very busy year for the Commission and the political parties, with the 2023 general election just 396 days away, adding that all the critical preparations must be concluded this year.
On the Continuous Voter Registration, Yakubu said that as of Monday, January 17, a total of 8,260,076 eligible Nigerians commenced the online pre-registration, completed the registration physically or applied for a transfer to new voting locations, replacement of their Permanent Voters’ Cards, or updated their voter information records as required by law.
He said: “The Commission has been publishing weekly progress reports of the exercise, including analysis of the distribution of online and completed registration by age group, occupation, gender, and disability. Since the exercise commenced in June last year, the Commission has so far published 36 weekly reports which show a consistent pattern of young Nigerians between the ages of 18 and 34 constituting the largest majority of registrants”.
On the issue of voter registration and issuance of PVCs the INEC boss said:
” We are aware that Nigerians want to know when their PVCs will be available for collection. At the moment, the Commission is undertaking the most comprehensive cleaning up of the data to ensure that only eligible citizens are added to the voters’ register for the 2023 general election and will share our findings with Nigerians and the actual dates for the collection of the PVCs nationwide will be announced very soon.”
Yakubu encouraged Nigerians to come out in mass to cast their vote for their proffered candidates on Election Day.
“We will continue to work with all stakeholders, especially the civil society organisations, to sensitise the youths and other categories of voters to ensure that beyond registration, they come and out and vote on Election Day. We should not simply lament, criticize and condemn. We must get involved for the good of our democracy and the nation”.
The INEC chairman also advised political parties to continue to encourage eligible voters who have not registered to do so, bearing in mind that those who had registered at any time previously need not register again.
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