INEC registers 10.29million voters, sets to conduct 4 bye-elections
July 19, 2018

As the August 17 suspension of voters registration date approaches, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has registered a total of 10.29million voters as at close of work on Friday, July 14, 2018. The INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, stared this on Wednesday while meeting with Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) at INEC Secretariat, Abuja Yakubu restated that the August 17 deadline for suspension of voters registration remains sacrosanct and will remain suspended until after the 2019 general elections. He further reassured all registered voters that their permanent voters cards (PVCs) will be available for collection before the 2019 general elections. The chairman also said the commission is set to conduct bye-elections to fill vacancies in four constituencies, namely; Bauchi South Senatorial District, Katsina North Senatorial District, Lokoja/ Koton Large Federal Constituency of Kogi State and Obudu 1 State Constituency of Cross River State House of Assembly before the end of the year. He added that the commission has received official declaration of vacancies from the concerned legislative bodies and prepared to conduct elections in the four constituencies “which have a total of over two million voters spread across 3,355 polling units in 234 wards and 22 local government areas”. The INEC boss also disclosed that the four bye-elections are to be conducted on the same day, considering the requirement of the law that such elections shall be conducted within 30 days following the declaration of vacancy. He said, “These bye-elections will offer the commission yet another opportunity to fine-tune our processes in preparation for the Osun State governorship election and ultimately the 2019 general elections” Yakubu reassured Nigerians that the commission “will continue to improve the quality of our elections drawing from the lessons learnt from the collective experience of having conducted elections into 181 constituencies since the 2015 general elections made up of 6 governorship elections, 11 senatorial districts, 23 federal constituencies, 73 state constituencies and 68 area council constituencies in the Federal Capital Territory”. The meeting among other things reviewed the recently conducted Ekiti governorship election, the CRVs and the pending bye-elections.

Share: