INEC Extends Voter Registration By 60 Days

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has extended the continuous voter registration (CVR) exercise by 60 days.

Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Electoral Matters, Hon. Aishatu Jibril Dukku, disclosed this.

He disclosed this during Wednesday’s plenary, while briefing lawmakers on the committee’s efforts to ensure implementation of a House resolution reached last week.

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According to her, “The Committee held a meeting with INEC yesterday (Tuesday) and they agreed to extend the CVR, all our resolutions were approved.”

This is coming hours after a federal high court ruled restraining INEC from ending the exercise.

Recall that Techuncode.com had reported that INEC planned on ending the continuous voter registration on the 30th of June.

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However, a ruling granting an interim injunction by the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) restrained INEC from ending the exercise.

The Federal High Court in Abuja had, on Monday, ruled to restrain INEC from ending voter registration on 30 June 2022.

SERAP and 185 concerned Nigerians had filed the lawsuit against INEC asking the court to “declare unconstitutional, illegal, and incompatible with international standards the failure of the electoral body to extend the deadline for voter registration to allow eligible Nigerians to exercise their rights.”

Similarly, many Nigerians had continued to decry the decision by INEC to end the voter exercise by the 30th of this month.

They complained that there were no registration machines in many registration centres especially in many southern parts of the country.

Also, were there were registration machines, they are very few as against a large number of people trying to register.

Stakeholders soon cried foul, accusing INEC of trying to disenfranchise a greater number of Nigerians from the south by not registering them.

Consequently, the House of Representatives had, last Wednesday, urged INEC to extend the deadline for continuous voter registration by an extra 60 days from June 30, 2022, to enable more Nigerians to register.

Chairman, House Committee on media and publicity, Benjamin Kalu, noted through a motion, that INEC wanted to end the ongoing CVR by INEC on June 30 ahead of the 2023 general elections.

Therefore, the House urged the electoral umpire to extend the date.

INEC said it is complying with the recent court ruling to extend the date.

Meanwhile, the House also urged the Commission to deploy additional staff and voter registration machines across the country to meet the objective.