Voters in Ekiti/ thisdaylive.com
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) have said 11 million Nigerians have been registered for the 2019 elections.
INEC Chairman Mahmood Yakubu said this on Wednesday in Abuja at a meeting with “Our Mumu Don Do” group, a social movement.
Yakubu stated that there are about 15 million uncollected cards as he said the decision to suspend the ongoing Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) was not prompted by pressure “As of Aug. 5, we have registered 11 million Nigerians.
“These are fresh registrants that we are going to add to the existing registrants of 70 million registrants, making over 80 million Nigerians registered for 2019 general elections,” he sai.
“We have so far received over 569,000 requests for transfer and we have 909 requests for replacement of damage, defaced and lost PVCs.
“We have responded to this surge by putting up additional machines and more centres for registration.
“We have also extended the time for registration in terms of hours of registration in the day, that is closing time from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.”
He added that “From the 2015 general elections, we have about seven million uncollected cards, by the time you add it to new registrants we will have up to 15 million uncollected cards.
“So, we have to suspend the registration exercise, make the cards available and work with relevant stakeholders to ensure that citizens collect their cards before 2019 election.”