The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) plans to end voter registration on July 30 is tantamount to dis-enfranchising millions of Nigerian voters out-side the rule of law as no existing electoral law gave such mandations on the electoral umpire.
According to Nzuko Umunna, a Think Tank group of Igbo Professionals” Clearly the short period of additional few days given by INEC is not necessary going by Section 9(6) of the Electoral Act 2022 which provides that: “The registration of voters, updating and revision of the Register of Voters under this section shall stop not later than 90 days before any election covered by this Act”.
The group in statement signed by its President, Professor. Chika Moore and Chairman NU ADHOC COMM.on Voter Registration/Electoral Participation Hon. Emmanuel Mok after its Press Conference in Enugu over the Weekend urged INEC to extend the closing date for voter registration to 30th September 2022 as it is still within the ambit of the law.
They posited that the ”fundamental action that INEC needs to take include to communicate clearly the extension period for registration, release all or most of the electoral biometrics registration capture machines to all the Local Government Areas (LGAs) in Nigeria paying special attention to major cities and towns of Nigeria and the whole of South East region of Nigeria .
Going on, they stated that the ”209 units of machines INEC released across the country are a drop in the ocean of needs. ”If these machines are deployed to only Lagos State for example, the twenty LGAs in the State will receive just 10 units per LGA. It is pertinent to note that each of these LGAs have populations in excess of one million people”.
Thus Nzuko Umunna called on the powers that be at INEC to employ seven clear cut strategies to achieve success: These include 1. Advocacy to INEC to improve their processes in terms of urgent deployment of adequate human and material resources for continuous voter -registration and especially for the collection of PVCs; 2. Support campaign for non-discriminatory processes in terms of providing services to voters across the federation; 3. Continued Voter sensitization and encouragement towards registration and collection of PVCs.
And 4; Support the use of Traditional & Religious institutions and Civil Society and Youth Organizations platforms in distribution of PVCs to registered voters; 5. Any other help the Embassy of America can render towards smooth voter registration and collection of PVCs; 6. Persuade INEC to use the individual’s biometrics to identity registered voters whose cards are not ready and for those whose cards had any issue so they can vote.
