The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has warned that the Monday federal high court verdict granting an order of interim injunction, stopping the commission from ending voter registration on June 30 has serious implications.
It said extending the period for continuous voter registration (CVR) could throw up 50% invalid registrants in the voter register ahead of 2023 elections.
This was disclosed by the INEC Commissioner for Information and Voter Education, Mr Festus Okoye during an interview with Channels Television, in Abuja.
He said, “The implication is that we will not be in a position to display the voter register for claims and objections. The second implication is that we will not have an opportunity to clean up the voter register — to remove double registrants.
“When we cleaned up the voter register for those who registered between 28th June, 2021 and 14th June, 2022, we found out 46 percent of those who registered were invalid registrants and we have to remove them.
“The implication is that if we go on as you have presumed (90 days before the general election), we may go into the 2023 general election with 50 percent of invalid registrants on the voter register.
“This registration started in June 2021. During this particular time, sometimes, a registration officer registers one individual a day. It is only in the last two weeks that voter registration is about to end that we have this surge.
“The commission is a constitutional body and we are under a constitutional obligation to give effect to judgments and orders of properly constituted courts of law and we are going to give effect to the order made by the federal high court.”
