The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu has disclosed that the commission is not in any way planning any adjustment to the election timetable, let alone postponing the 2023 general election.
Yakubu made this known at the presentation of an electronic copy of the 93,469,008 voter register to leaders of political parties on Wednesday in Abuja.
He pointed out that more than ever before, the commission was more prepared for the 2023 general elections and had now successfully implemented 11 out of the 14 activities on schedule for the elections.
‘Already, substantial quantities of sensitive and non-sensitive materials have been deployed to various locations across the country.
‘The last batch of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) has been received while the ongoing configuration of the critical technology in readiness for elections will soon be completed.
‘In the last two days, we commenced the airlifting of other sensitive materials to States across the country’.
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‘Already, some of the materials for 17 States in three geo-political zones have been delivered. Furthermore, 13,868,441 Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs) have been printed, delivered to States and are being collected by citizens as new voters or by existing voters who applied for transfer or replacement of cards as provided by law,’ he said.
He added that similarly, following the display of the voters’ register nationwide and the conclusion of claims and objections by citizens, a new national register of voters has been compiled.
‘In short, at no time in the recent history of the Commission has so much of the forward planning and implementation been accomplished 44 days ahead of a General Election.
‘Therefore, the commission is not contemplating any adjustment to the election timetable, let alone the postponement of the General Election.
‘For the avoidance of doubt, the Presidential and National Assembly elections will hold on Saturday, Feb. 25, 2023, while Governorship and State Assembly elections will hold two weeks later on Saturday, March 11, 2023.
‘The repeated assurance by the security agencies for the adequate protection of our personnel, materials and processes also reinforces our determination to proceed.
‘The 2023 General Election will hold as scheduled. Any report to the contrary is not the official position of the Commission.’
On the registered voter, Yakubu said after the cleaning up of the data from the last Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) from June 2021 to July 2022, where 9,518,188 new voters were added to the existing 84,004,084 voters, the preliminary register of voters was 93,522,272.
He said that when the register was presented to Nigerians for claims and objections as required by law, INEC received 53,264 objections from Nigerians to the prevalence of ineligible persons on the register by virtue of age, citizenship or death, which were verified and removed from the register.