Election 2023: INEC raises alarm over 45% invalid PVCs
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has revealed that 45 percent of the total number of registered voters has been found to be invalid as of January 14, 2022.
This revelation by the electoral umpire comes with about a year to the 2023 general elections in Nigeria.
INEC however stated that at least 1,390,519 Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) are valid.
The Chairman of INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, disclosed this on Wednesday during a press conference in Abuja, described the situation as challenging, stressing that the commission would continue to clean up the voters’ register.
Yakubu said, “Presently, nearly 45% of completed registrations nationwide are invalid, rising to as high as 60% or more in some states.
“This infraction happened in all states of the federation. No state is immune from it. These invalid registrations will not be included in the register of voters.
“This development is worrisome because of the time and resources expended in handling these cases.”
Prof. Yakubu, highlighted on the Continuous Voters Registration (CVR), and explained that during the period from 28th June to 2oth December 2021, millions of Nigerians commenced their registration online and thereafter scheduled appointments to complete the process physically.
“Millions more visited our State and Local Government offices to register in person without the option of going through the online procedure. For the pre-registration option, 1,014,382 registrants completed the process while 1,509,076 Nigerians registered in person at our designated registration centres nationwide.
“Furthermore, 671,106 Nigerians submitted requests to update their records, transfer their registration from where they are currently registered to other locations or the replacement of their lost or damaged PVCs.
“While the number of new registrants is very impressive and demonstrates the eagerness of Nigerians to vote in the forthcoming elections, the Commission has a duty to clean up the data to ensure that only eligible Nigerians are registered,” he said.
He said the foundation for any credible election rested on the credibility of the register of voters, saying that the introduction of the biometric registration of voters in 2011 has helped to sanitise the register.
“You may recall that initially, 73,528,040 Nigerians were registered in 2011. Using the Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS), the Commission was able to remove 4,239,923 invalid registrations. Consequently, the Register of Voters for the 2015 General Election stood at 69,288,117 voters.
“Subsequently, some 432,173 new voters were added to the Register during the CVR exercises ahead of the off-cycle Governorship elections in five States (Bayelsa, Kogi, Edo, Ondo and Anambra) from late 2015 to early 2017, bringing the total number of registered voters in Nigeria to 69,720,350. You may also recall that preparatory to the 2019 General Election, the Commission, for the first time, embarked on a nationwide CVR exercise on a continuous basis as provided by law.
“From 27th April 2017 to 31st August 2018, 15,317,872 new voters were registered. Out of this figure, 1,034,141 ineligible registrants were detected and removed from the register to arrive at the figure of 84,004,084 voters for that election,” he added.
The INEC Boss said, unfortunately, the troubling issue of invalid registration still persisted which the commission detected while cleaning up the latest registration data.
“As against the AFIS used in previous exercises, the Commission introduced the Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS) which is a more comprehensive and robust system, involving not just fingerprint identification but also facial biometric recognition.
“Sadly, it seems that many registrants, either out of ignorance that they do not need to re-register if they had done so before, or a belief that our systems will not detect this infraction, have gone out to register again. This is despite repeated warnings by the Commission against this illegal action.
