Underaged voting: KANSIEC did not use our voter register – INEC

 

Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has released the report of the panel set up to investigate allegations of underaged voting in Kano state, alleging that the Kano State Independent Electoral Commission (KANSIEC) did not deploy the national voter register in the conduct of its local government elections.

Recall that INEC had set up a panel to investigate whether underaged voters that allegedly participated in the Kano local government elections emanated from the National Voters Register.

INEC chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, who read the report at a press briefing on Friday, said the voter register, though KANSIEChad requested and register was made available, it was not used in many polling stations and the Permanent Voters Cards were equally not used for accreditation during the election.

The report further stated that: “Given that the register was substantially not used to accredit voters before voting, it is logical to conclude that if underaged voting occurred in the election it was not due to the presence of underaged registrants on the Register of Voters.”

He also stated that after the committee had examined some of the images in circulation, the committee found out that they had been available long before the Kano state local government elections.

The INEC boss quoted the committee as saying that “the few images and video clips from Kano showed no accreditation of voters or any relationship with the register of voters.”

Yakubu also stated that the committee recommended that “there was need and ample room for collaboration between INEC and all stakeholders to continue to update and improve the national register of voters to eliminate all ineligible registrants from it including dead persons, aliens and underaged registrants.”

The committee, according to the INEC chairman further recommended that the commission and SIECs should work together to ensure improvements in the quality of all elections conducted in the country.

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