Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), on Thursday, said that it will shutdown the ongoing nationwide continuous voters’ registration (CVR) pre-registration online portal in April in preparation for the 2023 general election.
INEC National Commissioner in charge of Information and Voter Education, Festus Okoye, disclosed this in an interview with newsmen in Lagos.
Okoye said: “We are going to shutdown the online portal latest by April but the physical registration will be going on until June.
“After June, the possibility of extending the CVR process is next to impossibility because we got to clean up the register, do claims and objections, and we have to print Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs).
“People have to collect PVCs and we have to give every registered political party the voters’ register that will be used for the 2023 general election. The law has obligated us to stop everything relating to voter registration at a particularly point in time.”
Okoye said shutting the portal had become imperative for INEC to clear those who had done their online pre-registration for the purpose of capturing their biometrics.
He said the fourth and final quarter of the ongoing CVR, billed to start on April 11 would be rounded off in June and urged Nigerians to do the needful at the right time to avoid last minute rush.
The INEC commissioner said the commission had seven services on the online registration portal for eligible voters as against six in previous registrations. He added that the seventh allowed people to locate where their PVCs were domiciled.
For those who registered during the first, second and third quarters of the ongoing CVR, he said the chairman of the commission will soon let them know the date and time when the new PVCs will be ready and the points of collection.
“Some of these PVCs have already been printed and we want people to come and collect them. The fourth and the last quarter will end sometime in June. Now, we do not want a situation where people will begin to rush to register at the 11th hour, to create a surge in our local government and state offices.”
