By Blessing Mercy Anayo
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has announced that it would suspend the ongoing Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise on May 30.
Speaking on Wednesday at the second quarterly consultative meeting with Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), INEC Chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu explained that the suspension was to enable the commission clean up the registration data ahead of the 2023 polls.
“As you are aware, the ongoing CVR exercise ends next month, that is 30th June, 2022. Both the online pre-registration, as well as the physical registration, at designated centres are taking place simultaneously,” he said.
“However, online pre-registrants would require time to schedule appointments to complete their registration physically at designated centres. For this reason, the commission has decided to suspend the online registration in the next three weeks, that is 30th May, 2022.
“This will enable the online registrants to complete their registration physically at the designated centres before the exercise is suspended on 30th June, 2022.
“This will enable the commission to clean up the registration data, print the Permanent Voter’s Cards (PVCs) and compile the register ahead of the 2023 general elections.”
It would be recalled that the electoral umpire resumed the online voter registration nationwide on June 28, 2021, over two years after the last exercise.
Last week, INEC revealed that the fresh registrants in the ongoing CVR exercise reached 8,855,996 as at May 2, as 5,415,619 out of the figure already completed their registration.
