The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC has recently urged Nigerians in general to raise any objections against the inclusion of any person who would be deemed not qualified to actually vote or the name of a dead person which has also appeared on the voter register which has been slated to be published on Saturday, November 12, 2022.
The commission had also revealed that the entire preliminary register which is containing 93,522,272 registrants participating in the 2023 general elections will be published.
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National Commissioner & Chairman Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye had also made the appeal on Thursday while reeling out the methodology for the display of the entire national register of voters for claims and objections by citizens as required by law and he said the exercise will last for two weeks, from November 12- 25, 2022.
Okoye added that physical copies of the register will be displayed in all the 8,809 Registration Areas (Wards) and 774 Local Government Areas on a polling unit basis nationwide.
He said: “The register will give the name, picture, date of birth and Voter Identification Number (VIN) of each registered voter. However, for data protection and security reasons, critical information such as biometric details, residential addresses, telephone numbers and email addresses of voters will not be made public on both the physical and soft copies.
“During the display, any person may make a claim that the name of a registered voter has been omitted, make corrections on his/her personal details on the register, raise an objection against the inclusion of any person not qualified to vote or the name of a dead person on the register
“As the exercise commences on Saturday 12th November 2022, we appeal to Nigerians to seize the opportunity to scrutinize the register and draw the Commission’s attention to any corrections in their personal particulars and any malicious registrations, multiple registrants, non-Nigerians or any other person not qualified to be on the register.
“Detailed clarification on the processes and procedures for the exercise, including relevant forms, can be obtained from the Commission’s officials at the points of display at Registration Areas (Wards) and Local Government Areas. The information has also been uploaded to the Commission’s website and social media platforms.
“By the provisions of the law, cleaning up the voters’ register is a collective national responsibility. So far, the Commission has weeded out ineligible registrants using our Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS). By working together with citizens, we can clean the register further as it is the critical foundation for credible elections.”
According to him, for the first time, the soft copy of the entire register will also be published on the Commission’s website.