Liberia’s National Electoral Commission (NEC) has sought the expertise of the Nigeria Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) on biometric registration of voters.
Speaking during a visit to the INEC in Abuja Thursday, chairperson Madam Davidetta Browne Lansanah, solicited the support of INEC to make Liberia’s adaptation of biometric technology seamless considering the high cost to acquire the technology.
“We will also be interested in hearing from you what kind of assistance you may render to the commission and as we move forward to expertise in the adaptation process as we continue with the voter registration process and we congratulate you for the introduction of an online portal which buttresses physical voter registration in Nigeria,” she said.
On his part, the chairman, INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, assured the chairman NEC that INEC will continue to strengthen the long-standing partnership with Liberia in the spirit of peer support.
Yakubu said Nigeria is increasingly moving away from the manual processes by deploying more technology to further guarantee electoral credibility.
He said he is convinced that the use of appropriate technology is one of the best guarantees for the transparency and credibility of the electoral process.
Yakubu recalled that in the last three years, INEC’s technical staff has worked with NEC on the register of voters twice.
He said the initial assistance facilitated the conclusion of the 2017 General Election in Liberia.
“Again, our staff returned to Liberia for the same reason ahead of the mid-term Senatorial election and the constitutional referendum held in December last year. Based on the lessons learnt from both exercises, our technical staff recommended that Liberia should introduce the biometric registration of voters,” he said
Yakubu said in Nigeria, the current full biometric register of voters introduced in 2010 has been used for three General Elections in 2011, 2015 and 2019.
Yakubu said what the commission has been doing since 2010 is to update the register under our Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise.
He said the aim is to enable citizens who have attained 18 years or those who did not register in previous exercises to do so.
“On this note, I wish to say that you are visiting us at the most auspicious time,” he said.
The INEC chairman also recalls that four weeks ago, the commission commenced the CVR exercise with the introduction of the online pre-registration through a dedicated portal designed by the commission.
He said this has enabled eligible Nigerians to begin the process online before they come physically to complete their registration at the designated centres where their biometrics will be captured.
“Over one million Nigerians pre-registered online in just four weeks. For those unable to commence the process online, dedicated centres have been established nationwide for in-person or physical registration which commenced on Monday this week.
“The two methods will continue simultaneously for the next one year before the exercise is suspended to enable the Commission to update the register in readiness for our 2023 General Election,” he said.
