1.12m online PVC registrations between June and December 2021 affected
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Some 1,126,359 out of 2,523,458 online registrations for Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) are invalid, says the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC), and it is suspending the channel for three weeks from 30 May to facilitate physical completion by online registrants.
The invalid registrations were out of those done across the country between June and December 2021, according to Zamfara Resident Electoral Commissioner Sa’idu Babura, a professor, who spoke in Gasau.
“After the authentication exercise, it was discovered that out of the 2,523,458 registrants nationwide, 1,390,519 are valid while 1,126,359 are invalid.
“This means that 44.6 per cent of all those registered between June and December 2021 are multiple registrations,” he said.
He disclosed that 33,090 people registered online in Zamfara as of December 2021 with 19,469 valid and 13,600 invalid, representing 41.1 per cent.
Babura said there were 2,516 polling units in the state in 2019 which have risen to 3,529 with 1,013 addition units created since then.
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Suspension of online registration
INEC Chairman Mahmood Yakubu, also a professor, announced in Abuja that online Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) will be suspended for three weeks to enable registrants complete their registration physically at designated centres.
CRV will be fully suspended on 30 June 2022, he said, per reporting by The PUNCH.
Yakubu explained that the suspension would enable the clean-up of registration data, printing of PVCs, and compilation of registers for the 2023 ballot.
He said INEC would finalise the regulations and guidelines for the implementation of the new Electoral Act, 2022 which would guide the coming Ekiti and Osun governorship polls as well as the 2023 general election.
BVAS lessons learnt will help improve voting in 2023
“For the first time, the commission deployed the Automated Biometric Identification System, a comprehensive and robust system involving not just fingerprint identification but also facial biometric recognition,” Yakubu added.
“On election technology, we have reviewed the functionality of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System [BVAS] following the complaints received after the recent Area Council elections in the Federal Capital Territory which was held on February 12, 2022.
“Two weeks later, the commission conducted six bye-elections in four states across four geo-political zones of the country covering rural, sub-urban and urban areas.
“It was the most extensive geo-political deployment of the BVAS since it was pioneered in the Isoko South I Constituency bye-election in Delta State in June last year.
“In these bye-elections, the BVAS functioned optimally as attested to by the reports of your field observers accredited by the commission.”
Yakubu said lessons learnt from recent bye-elections have been taken into consideration as the INEC prepares for the Ekiti and Osun governorship elections.
“The commission has just finished the configuration of the BVAS for the Ekiti State governorship election.
“We will also undertake a mock voter accreditation exercise in Ekiti State ahead of the main election on June 18, 2022, the details of which will be announced shortly.”