2019: INEC drops 300,000 names from voters’ register

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has stated that
over 300,000 ineligible voters were dropped after the Automatic
Fingerprints Identification System (AFIS) screened out their names.

The Chairman of INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, disclosed this yesterday
when ECOWAS Pre- Election Fact-Finding Mission paid him a courtesy
visit at the commission's headquarters, in Abuja.

He noted that the screening was part of effort aimed at ensuring a
clean voters' register ahead of 2019 general election.

Yakubu assured the delegation that the commission would continue to
perfect and improve it processes and deliver logistics and the
functionality of technology.

He said: "For the registered voters as at last week before I
travelled, I was told that over 300,000 names were dropped after the
Automatic Fingerprints Identification System (AFIS).

"But cleaning the voters' register is not just the responsibility of
the commission, it is also the responsibility of every Nigerian."

Yakubu said based on the provision of the law, the commission would
between November 6 and 12, display the voters' register for claims and
objections in 120, 000 polling units nationwide.

He said: "I will like to use this opportunity to appeal to Nigerians
to check when we displayed the register so that they can draw the
attention of the commission to the prevalence if any of any ineligible
person so that we can further clean up the voters' register.

"Let me say that as far as the commission is concerned, we are
prepared, and we have to be preparing for the 2019 general election.
In fact we can say that the 2019 general election is perhaps the most
deliberately well-planned elections in our history."

The electoral body said it would conduct elections into 1,558
constituencies in 2019, including, one presidential constituency, 109
senatorial districts, 360 federal constituencies, 29 governorship
elections, 991 state constituencies and 68 constituencies in the FCT
for the area council, the chairmen and councillors, making a total of
1,558 constituencies.

On his part, the leader of the delegation, Mohammed Ali Monte, said
the visit was aimed at getting an update on the preparation of INEC
ahead of the 2019 elections.

He added that the delegation also wanted to know the condition under
which the election would be conducted to gather information from INEC
on how prepared the commission is.

AFIS is a system used by the electoral body to check for multiple registrations.