Who benefits from INEC’s voter registration extension?

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had last week formally extended indefinitely the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise which was to end on June 30.

Mahmood Yakubu, INEC had previously given a hint about the extension at the closing ceremony of the musical concert organised in Abuja to sensitise eligible voters ahead of the general election.

Yakubu assured that: “The voter registration exercise will not end on June 30 as earlier proposed. It will continue till prospective voters register.”

The Commission made the extension public after its meeting in Abuja through a statement by Festus Okoye, INEC national commissioner and chairman of Information and Voter Education Committee.

According to Okoye; “The Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) will continue nationwide, and all the Resident Electoral Commissioners and Electoral Officers have been directed to continue with the exercise pending further directives from the Commission.

“The Commission has consistently reiterated its resolve to continue to provide electoral services to the Nigerian people and register all eligible Nigerians that are interested in registering. The Commission has yet again deployed additional machines to areas of pressure and will continue to serve the people of Nigeria,”

INEC had on June 28, 2021 flagged off the CVR with the projection of registering about 20 million new voters and having at least 100 million voters for the 2023 general election more the 87 million that participated in the 2019 polls.

Read also: Osun 2022: INEC devolves distribution of PVCs to registration areas at ward levels

Yakubu, the INEC chairman had ahead of the commencement of the CVR, said while 14. 2 million voters were registered during the 2017 – 2018 CVR; the commission was projecting to register between 16 and 20 million voters in the 2021-2022 exercise.

This was reiterated by Okoye in an interview with BusinessDay when he said INEC was targeting a minimum of 20 million additional registrants in the ongoing nationwide CVR exercise to increase the total number of voters to more than 100 million in the country.

He said the Commission would carry out the physical registration of voters within a period of one year in 2, 673 centres nationwide.

“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 INEC chief spokesperson had said.

However, as at 7am last Monday, being July 4 which marked quarter four, week 12 of the exercise, fresh registration stood at 10.487 million voters.

Close to the hitherto June 30 deadline, INEC was in the eyes of the storm over glitches in the process of registration precipitated by the surge in the number of prospective registrants who turned up for the exercise.

The only demand then was extension of the deadline and nothing less coming from critical stakeholders such as civil society organisations (CSO), the electorate and the parliament.

The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) and some displaced Nigerians had dragged INEC to court to stop it from ending the exercise on June 30.

Equally, the House of Representatives through a motion of urgent public importance moved by Benjamin Kalu (APC Abia) urged INEC to extend the voter registration deadline by an extra 60 (sixty) days from June 30, 2022, to enable Nigerians register.

Kalu argued that the decision to suspend the voters’ registration is in line with the provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022 which requires INEC to suspend voters’ registration at least 60 days before an election.

He said the House was: “Aware that in April 2022, INEC declared that about 42percent of the voter registrations recorded since the commencement of Continuous Voters Registration on 28 June, 2021 were invalid with about 20 million unclaimed Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) Cognizant of the large numbers of unregistered eligible voters willing to be registered as evidenced by crowd seen at various registration centres resulting in congestion.
“Concerned by reports of shortages of voter registration machines, inadequate manpower and personnel at registration centres which may lead to frustrations among prospective registrants and in some cases, unrest at some registration centres.

“Also aware of calls from concerned Citizens and Civil Societies urging INEC to extend the voters’ registration deadline to accommodate eligible voters desiring to register for their Permanent Voters Cards.

“Further aware that the right to vote is critically important to the health and legitimacy of our democracy, as well as electoral integrity.

“Also cognizant that if nothing is done to improve the shortage of voter registration equipment and extend
the deadline for voters registration, millions of Nigerians will be disenfranchised thus jeopardising the integrity of the 2023 general election.”

INEC met with House committee on electoral matters to which the motion was referred accepted to extend the CVR exercise beyond June 30, 2022.

Aisha Dukku, chairman of the committee told journalists that the committee held a meeting with INEC during which the commission agreed to extend the timeline, though not up to the 60 days requested.

Dukku said: “We invited INEC Chairman and he came and we presented the request and resolutions of the House and the resolutions are: INEC to extend the registration of all Nigerians of 18 that want to be registered to get their PVCs.

“In the motion we mentioned for at least two month which is 60 days. The resolutions of the motion were discussed at length and in response, the chairman of INEC saw with the House what is physically happening in our various constituencies. The number of people coming out for registration is unprecedented and we cannot deny Nigerians in wanting to be registered because it is their constitutional right

“In their response, they were positive because they are also a body in charge of that aspect. The first success is to get Nigerians that are eligible to get their voters card so that they can exercise their right come Election Day.

“However that registration of voters is one aspect. There are other milestones that have to be achieved which include the printing and distribution of the voters cards. And the printing of lists of all persons registered in all the 7744 local governments nationwide.

“So he said it would not be possible for INEC to extend to the days we requested. However they would go back and look at their timelines and look at how best they can to increase the days for registration.”

Now that INEC has bowed to pressure and extended the CVR exercise, the question is who will be the ultimate beneficiaries?

Could it be Nigerians, political parties and their candidates, or is it just for the sake of it? The question became necessary because INEC had earlier said any extension could mean that many prospective voters may not get their PVCs printed.
Some Nigerians are of the opinion that the extension will give them more opportunity to register and vote for candidates of their choice in the 2023 general election.

To politicians and their candidates, the extension offers them the chance to mobilise prospective voters especially in their strongholds to get enrolled and obtain PVCs to vote for them at the polls.

INEC too, despite its earlier fears, now have the window to work towards meeting their target of registering about 20 million voters and populating the voters’ register with at least 100 million voters.

Ezenwa Nwagu, executive director of Partners for Electoral Reforms told BusinessDay Sunday that though the extension was not canvassed by politicians, it will benefit all stakeholders in the electoral process, especially the electorate.

Nwagu, however, said the campaign should go beyond registration for PVCs and be about sensitisation of Nigerians to collect the cards and come out to vote for candidates of their choice on the day of election.

He said: “Politicians didn’t ask for the extension. It is the civil society organisations and Nigerians who were trooping to registration centres in a fire brigade approach, understanding that as a people we have become last ‘minuters’.

“Voter registration has been on for nine months in the centres but the places were empty, no registrants came around and when they heard that it was about to be closed they rushed and because of that pressure INEC had to be compelled to extend so that Nigerians who want to register will not claim that they were shut out from registration.”

On the expected time the exercise should last, the civil society leader said: “There will be a window at a point up to the 2023 general election when INEC feels that the time to process the voter’s cards is not inhibited in any way, it will have to shutdown.

Like in Osun for instance now, election is next week there is no longer voter’s registration because the fact that if you do voter’s registration now you will not be able to process those cards for election next week.

“The campaign now is not just about voter’s registration. There are many uncollected cards in INEC offices throughout the country running into millions. People should go and collect those cards and when they collect them, before this registration we have 84 million there are about on the register and we don’t have up to 40 million people voting. The issue is not about going to collect voter’s cards.

“There are many reasons people go to register; some register because it is a means of identification, other people register because in their community they are told that they need to top up their voting strength so that the amenities that will come to their communities will also be huge.

“So there are various reasons people register but the most important campaign is to go and vote. Even if you add 10 million people today to the register if you still have less people coming out to vote then, all this energy and effort will be in vain.”