The House of Representatives on Wednesday expressed displeasure over the lackadaisical attitude of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) towards the registration of 14,432,759 eligible Nigerians.
The lawmakers expressed the concerns during the debate on the alleged breach of the Electoral Act, 2010 by INEC on continuous voters’registration, as contained in the motion sponsored by Benjamin Okolo.
In his lead debate, Okolo observed that the Continuous Voter Register is a global practice which allows regular update.
He added that INEC contravened section 9(1) of the Electoral Act, 2010 which provides that “the commission shall compile and update, on a continuous basis, a national register of voters, in this Act referred to as the (Register of voters) which shall include the names of all persons entitled to vote in any Federal, State and Local Government or Area Council elections.”
According to the lawmaker, section 10(3) of the Act requires the commission to within 60 days after each year, make available to every political party, the names and addresses of each voter registered during the year.
He further alleged that out of 24,346,157 Nigerians who have attained the age of 18 years between the 2011 and 2015, only 9,913,398 out of this number were captured as eligible voters.
“Despite repeated demanded and appeals by Nigerians, INEC has failed to put in place, measures to guarantee continuous voter registration exercise across the country. The number of registered voters increased only minimally from 58,920,078 in 2011 to 68,833,476 in 2015, which represents on 17 percent increase.”
“The problem of breach of the Electoral Act on continuous voter registration will persistent, unless INEC adopts a full implementation of the exercise as provided in the Electoral Act 2010,” he stated.
To this end, Speaker Yakubu Dogara mandated the Committee on Electoral and Political Party Matters to investigate the non-compliance of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on the continuous voter registration and report back to the House within four weeks for further legislative action.
