The Independent National Electoral Commission revealed that it found 1,126,359 invalid records among the 2, 523,458 new registrants who registered between June 28, 2021, and January 14, 2022, and delisted them.
According to the commission, it also discovered several double, multiple, and ineligible registrants and invalidated them, as well as entries that did not comply with the commission’s business rules.
In a statement made available to the press yesterday in Abuja, the national commissioner and chairman of the Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, stated that a thorough process was being undertaken to clean up the registration data.
He also said that Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs) for all valid registrants will be available for collection by the end of October/early November as promised.
The INEC Commissioner noted that cleaning up of the register of voters using the Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS) is ongoing since the suspension of the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) on 31st July 2022.
The statement reads in part: “The ABIS for the period – 15th January to 31st July 2022 is almost completed. Several double, multiple, and ineligible registrants have also been detected and invalidated. These include entries that fail to meet the Commission’s business rules.
“The commission takes this responsibility seriously because a credible register is at the heart of electoral integrity.
“As soon as the process is concluded, the commission will provide the public with full information as usual.”
Okoye added that valid registrants will be included in the existing national register of voters before publishing same nationwide for scrutiny, claims and objections by citizens as required by section 19 (1) of the Electoral Act 2022.
