INEC must meet increased registration demand by citizens - Group

- YIAGA Africa’s WatchingTheVote has observed that there is an upsurge in the demand for registration by Nigerians

- The group had deployed citizen observers across the country to keep an eye on the ongoing Continuous Voters Registration process

- They listed some of the challenges the observers witnessed and advised the INEC on how to address the situation

Having deployed citizen observers across the country to keep an eye on the ongoing Continuous Voters Registration (CVR) process, YIAGA Africa’s WatchingTheVote has observed that there is an upsurge in the demand for registration by citizens which the group say, must be met by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

According to an observation report released by the citizen-led election observation initiative and sent to NAIJ.com, the group noted that the challenge remains that some people are not aware of the location of CVR centers while some of the machines in use are obsolete and have been breaking down in the course of registration.

According to the report, the queue at the registration centers are unabated, security deployment is not across board and most political parties are not deploying their agents.

Observation reports also shows that registrants also complained about inadequate registration centers especially in big local governments that require at least three or more registration points. Late arrival and early departure of INEC personnel was also among the challenges reported by WTV Observers.

INEC must meet increased registration demand by citizens - YIAGA Africa

The registration has been marred by inadequate preparation by INEC across the nation

The WTV team lauded INEC on the effective conduct of the process apart from delay in processing registrants and lack of enough machines and personnel while also applauding the resilience of Nigerians to get registered even in the face of challenges.

In view of these challenges, YIAGA Africa recommended that INEC should make available more DDC machines and personnel to meet up with high demand for registration.

The report also recommended that registration period can be extended to 6pm to ensure the commission registers more people in a day as more awareness should be created on new registration centers to enable citizens locate them.

Meanwhile, the European Union on Thursday, February 1, re-affirmed its commitment to supporting Nigeria’s electoral process with the launch of a programme aimed at promoting transparent, inclusive and credible elections in the country.

The programme tagged EU Support to Democratic Governance in Nigeria (EU-SDGN), is a €26.5 million (over N11 billion) initiative.

NAIJ.com gathered that the initiative is funded under the 11th European Development Programme (EDF), over a five year period.

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