A coalition of CSOs, on Monday, accused INEC of non-compliance with Section 19 (1) of the Electoral Act, which spells out how voters' registration should be displayed across the country.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has denied the claim by a coalition of civil society organisations that it violated some aspects of the 2022 Electoral Act.
The CSOs, under the platform of Situation Room, on Monday, accused INEC of non-compliance with Section 19 (1) of the Act which spells out how voters' registration should be displayed across the country.
They said the commission has only displayed the voters' register at the LGA levels, not at the registration centres as stipulated in the revised Electoral Acts.
The commission chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, at the ongoing validation meeting for the 2022 Revised Framework and Regulations for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) voting, in Abuja, said the group's claim is incorrect.
Mr Yakubu said INEC has not fixed a date for the activity in question and when it is time, it will do the needful to the letter.
He hinted that the date for the exercise will be communicated after cleaning its data of double or multiple registrants after the just concluded Continuous Voters Registration (CVR).
"While we always appreciate our collaboration with all stakeholders, it has become necessary to make an important clarification in respect of a statement attributed to a section of the civil society organisations.
"At a media briefing yesterday, the Commission was accused of failure to display the voters' register as provided by Section 19(1) of the Electoral Act 2022. This claim is incorrect.
"What the Commission displayed for claims and objections in our Local Government Area offices nationwide for a period of one week, from 15th - 21st August 2022, was not the entire register of voters but the list of fresh registrants at the end of the Fourth and last quarter of the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise covering the period from 11th April - 31st July 2022. This has been the practice for several years.
"Earlier, the Commission had displayed the register three times: 24th - 30th September 2021 (First Quarter), 24th - 30th December 2021 (Second Quarter) and 26th March - 1st April 2022 (Third Quarter). A comprehensive schedule of the CVR exercise and the display of the register was shared with stakeholders at our quarterly meeting just before the inception of the exercise in June last year," he said.
Mr Yakubu said the Commission would display the comprehensive register in all the wards and local government areas in the country with a view to integrating fresh voters registered during the last continuous voter registration.
He said: "We wish to assure Nigerians that the Commission will display the comprehensive register in all the 8,809 Wards and 774 Local Government Areas/Area Councils nationwide as envisaged in Section 19(1) of the Electoral Act 2022. This will integrate fresh voters registered under the last CVR exercise into the existing register of over 84 million voters. The date will be announced as soon as the Commission completes the ongoing Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS) to weed out all double/multiple as well as ineligible registrants. We appeal to some of our friends in civil society to be guided accordingly," Mr Yakubu said.
The event, which was held at Sheraton Hotel, had in attendance INEC National Commissioners, representatives of different security agencies, civil groups, and International Development Partners, among others.
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INEC introduced the idea of voting by IDPs because of the state of insecurity and its spillover effects on people who mostly get displaced from their homes.
Policy on IDPs
Mr Yakubu confirmed that a policy and framework was designed, revised and validated in 2018 for the 2019 General Election.
The revised IDP framework and regulations provide a template for IDP voting operations not only in conflict zones but also in areas of population displacement by non-conflict factors.
In the evaluation of IDPs and refugee's status in Nigeria presented at the meeting by the chairman of TCR-IDPVF, Baba Bila, there are over 3.2 million persons who have been displaced from their homes in Nigeria as of 2021. The figure stood at 2.730 million in 2020.
