CONTINUOUS VOTER REGISTRATION: Online Registration Hits One Million Voters In Four Weeks…..AS INEC begings physical registration today
Oru Leonard
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), said over one million Nigerians have registered since the Commission commenced the online pre-registration of voters.
A press statement made available to News Dot Africa, which was signed by the National Commissioner & Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Barr Festus Okoye disclosed that as of 7am today, Monday 26th July 2021, the number of new registrants has risen to 1,006,661. This is Four weeks after the INEC commenced the online pre-registration of voters on 28th June 2021.
He said the detailed distribution of the registrants by age, State/FCT, gender, occupation and disability for Week Four of the exercise has been uploaded to the Commission’s website and social media platforms. However, the distribution by age still shows that 740,063 (or 73.5%) are young Nigerians between the ages of 18 and 34.
Okoye also reminded citizens of an earlier announcement by the Commission on the physical or in-person registration which begins today, Monday 26th July 2021 at our 811 State and Local Government Area offices nationwide. The exact locations of the designated centres have already been uploaded to our website and social media platforms. For further details, citizens are encouraged to contact our State offices through the dedicated telephone numbers provided in the uploaded publication.
According to him, ” Nigerians who pre-registered online can now complete their registration at those centres based on scheduled appointments. In addition, other Nigerians who prefer to register physically/in-person can now do so at those centres.
“Both online pre-registration and physical/in-person registration will continue simultaneously until the suspension of the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise on 30th June 2022 to enable the Commission to clean up the data and compile the voters’ register for the 2023 General Election.
“The right to vote begins with the registration of voters. Thus, as we enter the next phase of the CVR exercise, we once again appeal to all citizens who wish to register to approach any of the Commission’s State or Local Government Area offices nationwide to do so”, INEC noted
The Commission reminded citizens that the ongoing registration does not include those already registered as voters and that The current exercise is only open to Nigerians who are 18 years and above who have not registered before.
“It is an offence under the Electoral Act for any citizen to register more than once”, the statement cautioned.
