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Tag: Continuous Voter Registration

  • CVR: Why we can’t extend June 30 deadline – INEC

    Amid the growing public clamour for the June 30 deadline for the Continuous Voter Registration, CVR, to be extended, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has said it is unable to extend the exercise following a suit filed by the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, SERAP, and 185 concerned Nigerians.

     

    In the suit filed at the Federal High Court in Lagos, the plaintiffs are asking the court for, among other things, an order of mandamus to direct and compel INEC to extend voter registration by a minimum of three months and take effective measures to ensure that eligible Nigerians are able to register to exercise their right to vote in the 2023 general elections.

     

    Speaking on rumours that the commission had agreed to extend the exercise for 60 days in line with the request of the House of Representatives, Mr Rotimi Oyekanmi, the Chief Press Secretary to INEC National Chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, said the commission had not extended the June 30 deadline.

     

    In a telephone interview, Oyekanmi said, “INEC has not extended the CVR deadline. What the commission did about two weeks ago when we noticed pressure in particular areas, namely the South-East states, Lagos, Kano, and the Federal Capital Territory, was to send additional 209 INEC Voter Enrollment Devices to those areas to ease the CVR procedure.

     

    “The commission wanted to wait and assess the effect of that action to determine the next step, but that is by the way now because SERAP went to court and tried to stop us from stopping the CVR.

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  • Finally, INEC agrees to extend Voter Registration by 60 days

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has agreed to extend the ongoing continuous voter registration (CVR) exercise initially slated to end at the end of June, 2022.

    Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Electoral Matters, Hon. Aishatu Jibril Dukku, disclosed this while briefing fellow lawmakers on the committee’s efforts to ensure implementation of a House resolution reached last week.

    “The Committee held a meeting with INEC yesterday (Tuesday) and they agreed to extend the CVR, all our resolutions were approved,” she told members of the House at plenary on Wednesday.

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

    The House also called on the Commission to deploy additional staff and voter registration machines across the country to meet the objective.

    The chairman, House Committee on media and publicity, Hon. Benjamin Kalu, through a motion, had noted that the ongoing CVR by INEC was scheduled to end on June 30 ahead of the 2023 general elections.

  • Voter registration: INEC announces vacancy for enrolment staff

    Voter registration: INEC announces vacancy for enrolment staff

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has announced vacancy for voter enrolment staff for the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise.

    TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports the INEC has also announced a date to begin recruitment and training of the voter enrolment staff.

    INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu made this known on Thursday at INEC’s Conference Hall Headquarters, Abuja during a press conference on recommencement of CVR exercise nationwide.

    According to the INEC Chairman, recruitment and training of the voter enrolment staff will commence on 14th June 2021.

    He further stated that effective from Monday 28th June 2021, the CVR exercise will commence nationwide and carried out continuously for over a year until the third quarter of 2022.

  • BREAKING: INEC announces new technology for voter registration exercise

    BREAKING: INEC announces new technology for voter registration exercise

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says it has acquired a new technology which it will introduce for the recommencement of continuous voter registration (CVR) exercise across the country.

    TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu made this known on Thursday during a press conference at INEC’s Conference Hall Headquarters, Abuja.

    He stated that the new technology is Android based and that the commission had been in a process of migrating to the INEC Voter Enrolment Device (IVED) from the old Direct Data Capture Machine (DDCM) that had been in use for about 10 years.

    The INEC Chairman also revealed that in order to reduce crowding at registration centres, the Commission has built a new online registration portal that would enable new registrants to commence registration online and subsequently complete the capture of their biometric data at designated registration centres.

    He stated that previously registered voters who wished to transfer their voting locations, apply for replacement of their PVCs or correct their personal information had to appear physically at the registration centres.

    Prof Yakubu, at the press conference, stated that all these were part of three cardinal reasons why the CVR exercise could not start earlier.

    The first, he said was the establishment of new systems that would ensure safer CVR exercise in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

    “In this regard, the Commission is building a new online registration portal that would enable new registrants to commence registration online and subsequently complete the capture of their biometric data at designated registration centres. This is designed to reduce crowding. Through the online portal, they can schedule their visits to the registration centres to suit their convenience.

    “Above all, a CVR Locator is integrated into the new portal which will enable online registrants to locate the nearest registration centre available to them to complete their registration.

    “Previously, registered voters who wished to transfer their voting locations, apply for replacement of their PVCs or correct their personal information had to appear physically at the registration centres.

    “The development of this portal, which is being done in-house by our engineers, has taken a little more time to complete than the Commission anticipated.

    “The second reason is the Commission’s determination to expand voter access to Polling Units.

    “You would all recall that recently the Commission embarked on a nationwide engagement with Nigerians in which we raised the fundamental issue of declining voter access to Polling Units across the country.

    “The engagement clearly demonstrated that the existing Polling Units are inadequate. They were initially designed to cater for a projected 50 million voters but presently serve over 84 million voters.

    “In addition, many of the Polling Units are inaccessible to voters, especially Persons With Disability (PWDs), and are not conducive to implementing the Commission’s election regulations, especially in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

    “We are glad that most Nigerians agree with the Commission on this issue, and we have commenced a far-reaching programme of converting Voting Points and Voting Point Settlements into fullfledged Polling Units and relocating poorly situated Polling Units to better locations.

    “The Commission needs more time to complete this exercise, so that the new Polling Units will be available for registrants to choose during the CVR exercise.

    “Thirdly, the Commission has decided to introduce a new voter registration equipment and technology.

    “The present generation of voter registration equipment, which the Commission introduced in 2011, is the Direct Data Capture Machine (DDCM). This is based on a laptop and a series of peripherals connected to it. In addition, it includes large powerpacks to power the laptops in the field.

    “While the DDCMs have served the Commission well over the last 10 years, we believe that there are now more compact registration devices that will better serve Nigerians during the CVR exercise.

    “The Commission is therefore migrating to the INEC Voter Enrolment Device (IVED), which is based on an Android tablet.

    “The procurement of the new devices, the modification of the registration software by our in-house engineers to make it compatible with the Android Operating System, as well as integrating these with the online registration portal require a little more time.

    “For instance, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, our partners abroad who manufacture the IVED hardware, are not operating at full capacity and the pandemic has also made the supply chain and delivery much slower,” Prof Yakubu said.

  • BREAKING: INEC announces date for Continuous Voter Registration nationwide

    BREAKING: INEC announces date for Continuous Voter Registration nationwide

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has announced date for the recommencement of continuous voter registration (CVR) exercise nationwide.

    TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu announced the date at a press conference on Thursday.

    The event took place at INEC’s Conference Hall Headquarters in Abuja, the federal capital territory (FCT).

    He stated that the Commission is now in a position to embark on recommencement of the CVR exercise on Monday 28th June 2021.

  • 2019: INEC may suspend Continuous Voter Registration in August

    Indications emerged on Thursday that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) may suspend the ongoing nationwide Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) in August.

    The hint emerged during INEC quarterly consultative meeting with the media on Thursday in Abuja.

    INEC at the meeting stated that it needed to suspend the exercise in good time in order to complete the procedures required for data processing, production and distribution of the Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) ahead of 2019 general elections.

    The Electoral Act 2010 (as amended) states that “the registration of voters, updating and revision of register voters under this section shall stop not later than 60 days before any election covered by this Act’’.

    INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, speaking at the meeting, said from previous experience, the timeline required from the close of registration to the point of production and issuance of PVCs to prospective voters was about 120 days.”

    “This time span is required for the purpose of claims and objections and other backed activities including running the Business Rules and Automated Fingers Identification System (AFIS).”

    “Another 30 days is required from the date of PVC production to the point of issuance to registered voters for the purpose of quality assurance, packaging and movement from the Central Store to the respective state and Local Government Area offices.’’

    Yakubu also disclosed that the commission had ended CVR in Ekiti and Osun states ahead of 2019 general election.

    He said that the commission had already concluded the exercise at ward level in the two states where governorship elections will be conducted in July and September respectively.

    Yakubu also said that the commission would give the needed attention to collection of PVCs to ensure that the prospective owners of uncollected cards did so ahead of 2019.

    Clarifying the commission’s decision to enhance Smart Card Readers (SCRs) ahead of 2019 general election, Yakubu said it was to improve the functionality of the existing SCRs, adding that it was not to buy new ones.

    Meanwhile, the media executives in a communiqué resolved that the Commission should ensure that all qualified Nigerians were registered.

    The communiqué was jointly signed by Austin Maho, Editor Nigeria Pilot; Gbenga Aruleba, Head Reportorial, African Independent Television; for the media and Malam Mohamed Haruna, INEC National Commissioner.

    The media executives, however, urged INEC to take cognisance of the time required for the processing of the data as well as the production and collection of the PVCs.

    They suggested that the registration should terminate in the middle of August 2018, while also calling on INEC to educate Nigerians accordingly.

    On PVC Collection the media executives expressed concern over the high level of uncollected PVCs nationwide and advised that INEC devise innovative ways to ensure that more Nigerians collect their PVCs.

    The media called on Nigerians to come out to collect their PVCs as a matter of urgency. While is resolved to assist INEC with ideas to sensitise Nigerians on the need to collect their PVCs.

    Other presentations at the meeting included INEC’s preparations for the Ekiti governorship election, the collection of PVCs.

    There was also a demonstration of the sample ballot paper for the 2019 general elections designed to accommodate the large number of registered political parties that may participate.

    The meeting also had a preview of the Polling Unit Result Display Form (Form ECGOE) and the specimen ballot paper to be used for the Ekiti Governorship Election.