By Ismail Auwal
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has estimated that 95 million people will cast ballots in the upcoming 2023 election.
The INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmoud Yakubu on Friday at a forum with members of the Nigeria Guild of Editors in Lagos said the commission has commenced cleaning the election register.
He said that “For the 2023 general elections, INEC is making preparations for approximately 95 million voters. Yes, we have 84 million voters now; we have registered 12 million newly. None of the fresh registrants has been added to the register. We are cleaning up the register.
“A few days ago, some people said they discovered so many fictitious names on the register. When I heard that, I asked myself: ‘Which register?’ We have not even compiled it. We are cleaning up the data; so, how come that someone already knows the register, which is supposed to be compiled by the commission? It is a very serious matter for us, because it touches at the heart of credible elections,” he said.
He assured Nigerians that no name from the recent Continuous Voter Registration has been added to the register of voters.
Yakubu also stressed that the law requires the commission to clean up the data.
According to him Section 19, subsection 1 of the Electoral Act says INEC should throw the register open for Nigerians for claims and objections, so that the citizens can also help the commission to clean the register further.
The INEC Chairman also warns that the increasing level of insecurity in some parts of the country poses a threat to the polls.
