The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says a speedy passage of the Electoral Amendment Bill, currently before the National Assembly, was crucial to its preparations for future elections, including the 2023 general elections.
INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, made this disclosure at the commission’s first quarterly meeting with political parties for the year 2022, on Tuesday, in Abuja.
Yakubu said that INEC was looking forward to the passage to release its timetable for the 2023 general elections.
He said that the passage of the act was crucial for INEC:
On the Electoral Amendment Bill currently before the National Assembly, the Commission is encouraged by the Senate President’s assurance to give priority attention to the Bill, when the National Assembly reconvenes from its recess today.
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We are also encouraged by the commitment of the President to assent to the Bill as soon as the issue of mode of primaries by political parties is resolved.
We look forward to a speedy passage of the Bill, which is crucial to our preparations for future elections.
s soon as it is signed into law, the commission will quickly release the timetable and schedule of activities for the 2023 General Elections, based on the new law.
Yakubu said further that the year 2022 was going to be a very busy year for the commission and the political parties, as the 2023 general election was just 396 days away and all the critical preparations must be concluded in 2022.
He disclosed that as of Monday, Jan. 17 a total of 8,260,076 eligible Nigerians commenced the online pre-registration, completed the registration physically in the on-going Continuous Voter Registration (CVR).
Yakubu said that the figure also included voters who applied for transfer to new voting locations, replacement of their Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs) or updated their voter information records as required by law.
The CVR, which commenced in June 2021, has entered the third quarter.
The INEC chairman said that:
At the moment, the commission is undertaking the most comprehensive cleaning of the data, to ensure that only eligible citizens were added to the voters’ register for the 2023 general election.
We will share our findings with Nigerians and the actual dates for the collection of the PVCs nationwide, will be announced very soon.
I want to request that you continue to encourage eligible voters who have not registered to do so, bearing in mind that those who had registered at any time previously need not register again.
Also, encourage voters who wish to transfer from their present Polling Units to new ones created, as part of the commission’s expansion of voter access polling units, to do so immediately.
