Ahead of the 2023 general elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said it is targeting a minimum of 20 million additional registrants in the forthcoming nationwide Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise to increase the total number of voters to more than 100 million in the country.
The Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) would begin nationwide Monday June 28, 2021 with the Commission introducing a portal to enable eligible Nigerians to commence registration.
The registration process would be completed with a biometrically capturing physically at designated INEC centres nationwide.
In an interview with BusinessDay, Thursday, Festus Okoye, INEC, National Commissioner/Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, noted that the Commission will carry out the physical registration of voters within a period of one year in 2, 673 centers nationwide.
He stressed that the physical registration of voters will commence on the 19th of July, in INEC State and Local Government Offices.
According to him, “For the current exercise, the Commission is targeting at least 20,000,000 new registrants. So many of our young men and women are enthusiastic about our online registration portal and we believe that it will ease congestion in our registration centers.
“The Commission will assess the security situation in the country and further roll out or roll back to all the registration centers. All eligible registrants in the rural areas and urban centers will be registered.
The Commission was, however, silent on modalities and provision for people in the rural areas and communities where access to the internet is difficult and electricity is largely epileptic or unavailable.
