Voters’ Registration to Commence 18 Months Ahead of 2023 General Election
It is the new normal in Nigeria as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu informed the media about the commission’s plan to commence voters’ registration in the first quarter of 2021.
This was stated on Wednesday in Abuja after Prof. Mhamoodu appeared before the Senate Committee led by Senator Kabiru Gaya, APC Kano south, to defend the commission’s budget for 2021.
“For continuous voter registration, the commission will resume voter registration in the first quarter of 2021”, Prof. Yakubu affirmed.
He said “Once we resume, it will be continuous for one and a half years, at least until six months to the next general election. In other words, the commission is not going to resume voters registration for a week, two weeks or a month but we are working out the details.”
The commission chairman, Prof. Yakubu is also advocating for diaspora voting, he employed the national Assembly to amend the Electoral Act to accommodate Nigerians in diaspora and adopt early voting system.
“The commission is desirous of giving Nigerians living abroad the right to vote, after all, all our neighboring countries do so. But it requires the amendment to the constitution and the Electoral Act for that to happen.
“We have already worked out the document. Once the law is amended today, we can roll out. We are ready. We have had several meetings with the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, NIDCOM, but we can’t go beyond what the law provides,” Prof Yakubu stated.
He also called the attention of the committee to the inability of some groups to vote. He believed that an amendment to the Electoral Act should allow the group such as security personnel, INEC staff, journalist and others the right to vote even as they carry out their job activities during the election period.
Prof. Yakubu said the amendment should allow Nigerians with Permanent Voter’s Card the right to vote irrespective of their location within the country at the time of the election.
He said, “It’s not just those in the armed services, the police involved in election duty, journalists, INEC adhoc staff and some INEC staff don’t vote. The reason is that you are posted for election duty to places other than where you are registered, and the law says you vote where are registered”.
“So, if you pass some amendments to the Electoral Act to enable people to vote, two solution perhaps, early voting, so that those involved in election duty can vote early or major reform of electoral legal framework to allow people to vote wherever they are,” he added.
