The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Saturday, ruled out possibilities of extension of the ongoing nationwide Continuous Voters Registration (CVR) exercise, insisting that it would close on July 31, 2022 as scheduled.
The INEC National Commissioner in charge of Voter Education and Publicity, Barr. Festus Okoye, who disclosed this while interacting with journalists in Awka, Anambra state, noted that the CVR would be suspended in order to enable them carry on with their other constitutional responsibilities.
Okoye added that the commission would at the end of the exercise scrutinise the voters’ registers to clean up possible incidents of multiple registrations, print the various Permanent Voters Cards (PVC), display voters’ registers across the 774 local government areas and polling units, among other activities.
He said the commission would make available all the PVCs for those who registered or carried out voters’ transfers between January to June 2022 on October 2022, while those who enrolled between July 1 and July 31, 2022 would receive theirs by November 2022, at various local government offices of INEC.
Okoye commended stakeholders in Anambra state for supporting the commission throughout the period of the exercise, because according to him, with their efforts, INEC staff were able to device and execute the projects successfully among the populace by locating places like markets, churches, events and communities with larger populations.
“We deployed a total of 110 INEC development devices to Anambra. 10 malfunctioned. 6 were repaired by our in house engineers and redeployed back to fields. In Anambra State, we trained some of our staff to assist in carrying out the exercise. We isolated those for transfer, replacement, and others. We trained our staff to assist in rendering the various services.
“We extracted clear protocol on how to carry out voters transfer, voters review and replacements to mitigate the surging crowd. We isolated places to carry out intervention; and we took machines to markets, churches, NUJ, NYSC orientation camp and other places where they are large concentration. For complaints, we developed a compliant desk for people to voice out their complaints. Over 50 complaints were received and treated. We carried intervention at 82 locations,” he stated.
Okoye, while responding to questions regarding their level of preparations for the 2023 general elections, said they were determined to conduct free, fair and credible polls, adding that the commission would train presiding officers and security officers on how to curbing electoral malfeasance such as impersonation, vote trading and buying.
