THE REGISTRATION OF NEW VOTERS

The credibility of any election is contingent on the integrity of the voter register

Ahead of the 2027 general election, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has commenced its continuous voter registration (CVR) exercise to enhance the electoral process. Beginning from tomorrow (August 18), those who wish to register online can do so while in-person registration will commence a week later, on August 25. Thereafter, the two processes will continue simultaneously until August next year. INEC National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Sam Olumekun stated that for easy identification, the commission would deploy an online CVR live locator indicating the addresses of the 811 in-person registration centres across the 774 local government headquarters nationwide.

To the extent that the integrity of the voter registration process is critical to the credibility of elections, updating the national voter register is necessary. We therefore hope that INEC is ready for the exercise. Some ill-prepared registration processes in the past contributed to some of the lapses that were witnessed in previous elections. For instance, the data of newly registered voters released by INEC in the last exercise was surprisingly low for an exercise embraced with enthusiasm. At the end, almost half of the newly registered voters were declared invalid. Indeed, out of the expected five million prospective voters that turned 18 at the time, only about 2.5 million were registered in the first 10 months of the exercise. Painfully, over one million of them were invalidated, and disenfranchised during the 2023 elections.

However, many of those invalidated were traced to double registrations. Many registered voters, perhaps for inadequate information, queued again for fresh registrations. Citizens who perhaps lost or damaged their Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) also registered as fresh voters instead of applying for replacements. Some others who relocated to different parts of the country, and in the bid to transfer their voter registration to their new locations, registered as new voters. Still some others simply could not find their records on the INEC portal when they tried to retrieve previous registrations hence did a fresh registration. All this amounted to multiple registrations which contributed to many of the rejections. This is an issue that must be corrected in the present exercise to forestall systematic disenfranchisement of Nigerians. 

Meanwhile, we fail to understand why despite the deployment of technological tools like the automated biometric identification system (ABIS) and automated fingerprint identification system (AFIS), many cases of duplication went unnoticed during the registration exercise. That suggested that the data cleaning exercise was shoddy. Indeed, many Nigerians discovered to their amazement phoney names, and dead citizens in the national voter register. But what triggered the most outrage was perhaps the brazen violations of the electoral law as voters below the statutory age of 18 years freely participated in the 2023 general election. Video footages that went viral during the last elections had captured children thumb printing ballot papers in some sections of the country. Reports are rife that many minors were registered because of threats to registration officers by many communities.

This is an issue that the INEC cannot afford to treat with levity because of its tendency to compromise the outcome of elections. Fortunately, the electoral umpire is acutely aware that the credibility of any election is contingent on the integrity of the voter register. Section 12 (1) of the Electoral Act as amended clearly defines who is eligible as a voter. These are citizenship, residence and the attainment of the mandatory age of 18 years. Therefore, there is need to clean and sanitise the voter register in all centres across the country and conduct the forthcoming elections in accordance with the best global professional standards.

To achieve this, INEC and other stakeholders should ensure that forthwith, deliberate actions are taken to protect officials during the registration of voters just as it is done during the voting process. “Your PVC is your key to making your voice heard in our democratic process,” INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu said in a statement on the commission’s portal. “We urge every eligible voter to seize this opportunity to register, update their information, collect their PVCs and actively participate in shaping their future.”

We hope that at the end of the exercise, INEC will produce a voter register that is credible.

The post THE REGISTRATION OF NEW VOTERS appeared first on THISDAYLIVE.