INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu
- displays new register at polling booths
- says 2019 elections will be conducted into 1,558 constituencies
Over 300,000 names have been deleted from the voter register by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) .
This was disclosed by the INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, who said: “as at today, over 300,000 names have been dropped after the automatic fingerprints identification system.”
He spoke on Monday while receiving a delegation of election administrators from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
Mahmood charged Nigerians to seize the opportunity of the register that is being displayed at polling booths from today through 12th of this month.
“And I will like to use this opportunity to appeal to the citizens to check when we display the register so that they can draw the attention of the commission to any issues contained therein,” Yakubu pleaded.
On the forthcoming polls, the chief electoral umpire stated: “We will conduct elections into 1,558 constituencies in 2019.
“There is one presidential, 109 senatorial districts and 360 federal constituencies, 29 governorship, 991 state constituencies and 68 constituencies in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) for the area councils, the chairmen and councilors making a total of 1558 constituencies.”
Leader of delegation, Mr Muhammed Ali Konte, said their mission was to ascertain INEC’s preparedness and overall preparations for the exercises.
He noted: “It is a fact-finding delegation to gather information on the preparation for the elections.
“We will also meet with key stakeholders like security agencies, civil society groups, political parties and the media.”
Meanwhile, the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP), Prince Uche Secondus, has charged Nigerians to go check their names at their polling booths from Tuesday.
He submitted that the essence of the four-day display of the register as stipulated by the Electoral Act is to ensure that no voter is disenfranchised.
The PDP chair said the double-checking of details is a mechanism to check the manipulation of the entire system.
“By cross-checking and double-checking, the voters wittingly would have begun the battle to frustrate rigging of the election,” he added.
The Guardian
