Chairman of INEC, Prof. Attahiru Jega
- 68.8 million voters registered
- 739 candidates for senatorial election, 1,780 for House of Representatives election
- House members ask INEC to allow voters use temporary
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Tuesday presented a voters’ register of 68,833,476 Nigerians that would be eligible to vote at the February 14 presidential and National Assembly elections and the February 28 governorship and state Houses of Assembly elections.
The commission also said the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), President Goodluck Jonathan, and the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, and 12 other presidential candidates are duly nominated to contest the February 14 presidential election.
It also said there are 739 senatorial candidates and 1,780 candidates for the House of Representatives elections. Also, the commission said that it had received 130,000 card readers for the election, while some are still being expected.
Addressing newsmen in Abuja yesterday evening, Chairman of INEC, Prof. Attahiru Jega, said 68,833,476 eligible registered voters are expected to vote. He also said that the commission would be giving the hard copies of the registered voters to the political parties as from today.
According to Jega, “In line with the provisions of the law, the commission has just announced the publication of the register of voters that will be used for the February 2015 general election. The total number of voters registered for the election is 68,833,476.”
On the February 14 presidential and National Assembly elections, the INEC chairman said: “Following nominations made by political parties and as required by law, we have also published in the INEC state office and on the website (www.inecnigeria.org) today the list of candidates for the National Assembly and presidential elections scheduled for February 14 2015. For the presidential election, there are 14 candidates duly nominated by the political parties. For the senatorial elections, there are 739 candidates and for the House of Representatives election, there are 1,780 candidates. The list of nominated candidates for the states (governorship and state Houses of Assembly) will be published on January 27, 2015.”
Earlier, the INEC Director of ICT, Dr. Chidi Nwafor, said 74.6 million Nigerians were registered during the 2011 registration exercise, whereas 68,833,476 were eligible for the 2015 general election.
He said the commission had cleaned the voters’ register through the cleansing of the voters. The director said 61,681 eligible voters were found to be double registrants and their names were deleted from the voters’ register.
He further said 580,000 had no fingerprints in their Permanent Voters Cards (PVC), hence they were cancelled.
Giving details, the INEC chairman said over four million Nigerians were involved in double registration, while calling for the creation of Election Offences Commission.
The INEC chairman said though the commission had earlier received over 54 million PVCs, but added that more had been printed and delivered to the commission.
He announced the extension of time for the collection of the PVCs from 8.30am to 5.30 pm in all wards in the country from Mondays to Saturdays, expressing hope that before the end of January, all eligible voters would have collected their PVCs.
He also threatened to sanction any staff of the commission that does not comply with the new time belt. He said no temporary PVC would be used for next month’s general election.
The INEC chairman said the commission would continue to use the NYSC members as ad hoc staff for the election.
He commended the NYSC and said the commission would resort to using other personnel where there are not enough NYSC members, by using staff of tertiary institutions.
On the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), he said a decision was yet to be taken on whether they would vote or not, but expressed hope that they would vote.
Jega stated that a stakeholders’ meeting with the political parties would eventually decide how they would vote.
According to Jega, “INEC has always said it is preparing to conduct elections in all the 36 states and the FCT, including the three states in the North-east experiencing the challenge of insurgency. The commission however will work closely with security agencies who have the constitutional responsibility for securing the election environment.”
He further said the commission is concluding arrangements to enable the IDPs to vote.
“On Tuesday next week, we will be having a meeting with stakeholders to present our plans and get their input as well,” he said.
The INEC chairman said the commission had received 132,000 card readers and there would be more than enough card readers. He also said there would be 155,000 voting points and already over 25,000 card readers had been distributed to respective states.
On the closure of schools during elections, he said since some schools might be used, it might be necessary for some of the schools to be closed, but not for a ‘general closure of schools.” He said as a commission, INEC was yet to make such a decision.
Earlier, the Chairman of the Inter Party Advisory Council, Dr. Yunusa Tanko, commended INEC for the timely release of the voters’ register and also cautioned against the use of violent languages by politicians.
Meanwhile, the House of Representatives rose from plenary yesterday urging INEC to include in its election guidelines Nigerians with temporary voters’ card in the final list of those eligible to vote in the February polls.
The House will also probe the allegation by the Department of State Security (DSS) that the APC hacked into the database of the commission.
Spurred by a motion by the House Minority Leader, Femi Gbajabiamila, under matters of urgent national importance, the House therefore directed INEC to include temporary voter’s card holders as eligible voters in its election guidelines.
The motion was unanimously adopted.
Debating it, Gbajabiamila indicated that it is a motion that concerns every Nigerian and that some people would not be able to vote on February 14 unless the House wades into the issue of Nigerians who are yet to get their PVCs.
Noting that: "INEC has been and is still issuing PVCs to eligible voters in replacement of the temporary voter’s cards issued to Nigerians about four years ago," the House expressed concern that "the general election being just four weeks from now, it is very unlikely that the commission will be able to distribute the PVCs to all registered and eligible voters before the elections."
The lawmaker said he was "disturbed that if the current position of the commission (that only voters with the PVCs are qualified to vote) is not addressed, many registered and eligible voters will be disenfranchised in this year’s general election to the detriment of the growth of democracy in Nigeria".
Eventually, the House charged INEC to "include in its election guidelines for the general election, a provision(s) allowing registered voters with the temporary voters’ card whose names are on record to vote during the 2015 general election."
Similarly, the House is set to work with the DSS in its bid to investigate the unauthorised and alleged hacking into the INEC data base.
Prompted by a motion by the Deputy House Leader, Leo Ogor, the House expressed dismay "that the allegations coming at the heels of an election period should not be treated with levity".
Describing the allegation by the DSS as "very serious," Ogor observed that "the INEC data base may contain highly sensitive data, and if compromised, it could cast serious aspersions on the integrity of the forthcoming elections".
He further observed that "voters’ registration information and data, specific strategies and modalities on which INEC deployment of election plans and anchored may be in the data base."
For these reasons, the House constituted a high-powered committee to ascertain the veracity of the allegation and report to the House within two weeks.
The composition of the committee was, however, not made public.
Source: http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/2015-inec-releases-register-of-eligible-voters-candidates/199155/#.VLZSHSU4Amc.blogger
