The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has promised Nigerians that it will conduct credible general elections next year. Its chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, made this promise while speaking at the 6th Anniversary Lecture and Investiture into the Realnews Hall of Fame in Lagos yesterday.
He said INEC is deeply committed to democratic elections that will contribute to political stability and consolidation of democracy, which will propel the nation to greater economic prosperity. To achieve this goal, the INEC chairman called on all stakeholders to play their roles.
According to him, the commission has embarked on the consolidation of full biometric voter registration through the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) between the twenty-seventh of April and thirty-first of August, among other preparations.
He added that at the end of the exercise, some fourteen-point-five million Nigerians were added to the existing register of about seventy million, and the voters register for the 2019 elections had hit eighty-four-point-two million.
Yakubu said there would not be any use of incidence forms, instead, manual register of voters has been redesigned to provide for a box for thumb printing and telephone number of any voter, whose biometric was not authenticated by the Smart Card Readers.
Yakubu highlighted INEC challenges as including do or die mentality of politicians, vote-buying, lack of internal democracy, incendiary speech, security, impunity and lack of consequences for electoral offenders.
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