Impartial Nationwide Electoral Fee has found the inclusion of useless individuals on the present voters’ register, prompting plans for a nationwide verification train.
INEC Chairman, Joash Amupitan, disclosed this on Wednesday throughout the electoral physique’s first quarterly consultative assembly with Civil Society Organisations.
Amupitan stated the evaluate had turn into crucial after analysing figures from the Anambra State off-cycle governorship election held in November, which revealed a pointy distinction between the variety of registered voters and those that really forged ballots.
He stated, “Once we take a look at the voters register for Anambra State throughout the off-cycle elections in November, we found that the variety of registered voters stood at over 2.9 million, however solely about 600 got here out to vote.
“That is nearly 20 p.c of the registered voters. So, we determined to take one other take a look at the register and we found names of distinguished Nigerian politicians who’ve died nonetheless on the register.
“That impacts on the integrity of the register and we’ve got to do a clear up as a result of we don’t count on the useless to return from the grave to vote”.
In accordance with INEC, the verification course of is required for sanitising the database and rebuilding public confidence within the electoral course of.
INEC chairman stated the findings have raised critical questions concerning the reliability of the register presently being deployed for elections throughout the nation.
He harassed that credible elections can’t be achieved with out an correct and up-to-date voters’ register, noting that the presence of ineligible names undermines confidence within the democratic course of.
Amupitan disclosed that the deliberate verification train would concentrate on eradicating the names of deceased individuals, correcting knowledge errors, and dealing with related authorities businesses to authenticate information.
He added that the clean-up train is a part of broader efforts by INEC to enhance electoral credibility and be certain that solely eligible Nigerians are captured on the voters’ register.