The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has removed 300,000 names from the voter register as the commission publishes the register across the 120,000 polling units nationwide.
The INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, said this while receiving the ECOWAS pre-election fact-finding team in Abuja on Monday.
Yakubu further urged members of the public to assist the commission in purging the register of ineligible voters such as illegal aliens and underage voters.
He said, “Between November 6 and November 12, we shall display the register of voters nationwide for claims and objections.”
“For the registered voters, we have been cleaning up on our own with the help of the Automatic Fingerprint Identification System. As of last week before I travelled, I was told that over 300,000 names were dropped after the fingerprint system was used.
“But cleaning up the register is not just the responsibility of the commission but the responsibility of every Nigerian and that is why the law says we should display the register for claims and objections which will be done between November 6 and 12 in the 120,000 polling units nationwide.
“And I will like to seize this opportunity to appeal to citizens to check when we display the register so that they can draw the attention of the commission to the prevalence of any ineligible persons so that we can further clean up the register”, Yakubu added.
The INEC boss said the commission would not alter its election timetable, adding that the 2019 general elections were the best planned elections.
Yakubu also added that, “We will conduct elections into 1,558 constituencies in 2019 made up of one Presidential constituency, 109 senatorial districts, 360 federal constituencies, 29 governorship elections, 991 state constituencies and 68 constituencies for the FCT for the area councils, the chairmen and councillors making a total of 1, 558 constituencies.”
He said out of the 91 political parties, 88 were fielding candidates for the elections.
The INEC boss said by November 9, the commission would publish the number of governorship and House of Assembly candidates.
Meanwhile, the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Prince Uche Secondus, has asked voters to troop out to their various polling booths to check their names as INEC begins the display of voters register at all polling units across the nation today.
Secondus said that the desire to rescue Nigeria from the All Progressives Congress government would be meaningless if everything pertaining to voting was not sorted out ahead.
A statement signed by his media adviser, Mr. Ike Abonyi, quoted Secondus as saying that the essence of the four days display as stipulated by the electoral act “is to ensure that no voter is disenfranchised and this is the first step to avoid it.”
He said, “Confirming the details ahead of the election is a mechanism put in place to reduce attempts by the electoral umpires to manipulate the system by saying that names of voters are not available.
“By cross-checking, the voters wittingly would have begun the battle to frustrate rigging of the election.”
Secondus urged voters who notice issues with their particulars to cry out immediately by going to the electoral centres to complain for rectification.
He alleged that part of the “rigging strategy of the APC working in agreement with some INEC staff is to doctor voter’s lists in the opponent’s strong holds to reduce their electoral advantage.”
