The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said that only 19,135 registrants have completed their registration in the first phase of the nationwide Continuous Voter Registration exercise in Oyo State.
The Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in the state, Barrister Mutiu Agboke, disclosed this during a press briefing at the head office of the Commission on Thursday.
Bar. Agboke, who revealed that the Continuous Registration Exercise (CVR) that has been suspended temporarily on September 21, 2021, will recommence on October 3rd, 2021.
The REC explained that the suspension of the exercise is to allow the Commission to display claims and objections emanated from the registration exercise across the 33 local government areas of the state.
He stated that the Constitution mandated it for the Commission to publish the register of voters for a period not less than five days and not more than 14 days to subject the exercise to public scrutiny.
According to Barrister Mutiu Agboke, “in compliance with the law, the register of new voters will be displayed in the 33 local government areas from 24th to 30th September, 2021, the aim is to enable citizens assist the Commission by identifying ineligible registrants on the list ahead of the cleaning up of the register before adding the fresh registrants to the current register and the printing of their Permanent Voter Card (PVCs) for future elections.”
On the update of the first phase of the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise, Barrister Agboke disclosed that only 19,135 registrants have completed their both online and physical registration out of 72,644 who registered during the online pre-registration exercise that started on June 28th, 2021.
He attributed the challenges facing by the Commission to enable registrants to complete the physical registration to multiple registration and failure to identify polling units and wards by the registrants.
Barrister Agboke, expressed that in order to address those challenges, the Commission has embarked on a series of advocacy and voter enlightenment programmes both at local and state levels to educate the electorates towards the Continuous Voter Registration exercise.
He, therefore, called on the media and other relevant stakeholders in the state to assist the Commission in eliminating ineligible registrants including foreigners and Nigerians below the voting age by identifying the multiple registrants and deceased persons in order to remove them from the INEC register as Commission commences second phase on October 4th, 2021.
