Nigeria’s electoral umpire – the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has announced June 28 as the new date for the commencement of the Continuous Voters Registration (CVR) exercise across Nigeria.
Prof Mahmood Yakubu, who is the chairman of the Commission in his address to announce the recommencement of the CVR, revealed that although the Commission will introduce new voter registration equipment and technology, and that the National Identity Number (NIN) will not be a consideration for registration as being widely speculated in several quarters.
‘The Commission has decided to introduce a new voter registration equipment and technology. The present generation of voter registration equipment, which the Commission introduced in 2011, is the Direct Data Capture Machine (DDCM). This is based on a laptop and a series of peripherals connected to it,’ Yakubu clarified on Thursday.
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‘In addition, it includes large power-packes to power the laptops in the field. While the DDCMs has served the Commission well over the last 10 years, we believe that there are now more compact registration devices that will better serve Nigerians during the CVR exercise.
‘The Commission is therefore migrating to the INEC Voter Enrolment Device (IVED), which is based on an Android tablet. The procurement of the new device, the modification of the registration software by our in-house engineers to make it compatible with the Android Operating System, as well as integrating these with the online registration portal requires a little more time. For instance, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, our partners abroad who manufacture the IVED hardware are not operating at full capacity and the pandemic has also made the supply chain and delivery much slower.
‘In consideration of these challenges and the measures we have taken to overcome them, the Commission is now in a position to announce Monday, June 28, 2021, as the date for the recommencement of the CVR exercise nationwide.
‘Effective from this date, the CVR exercise will commence nationwide and carried out continuously for over a year until the third quarter of 2022. However, emphasis will initially be on Anambra state where more centers will be established in view of the governorship election already scheduled for Saturday, November 6, 2021. In order to complete preparations for the governorship election, the CVR exercise in the state will be temporarily suspended in August 2021. This will enable the Commission to clean up the data for the state and print the PVCs for registrants. As time goes on, the Commission will provide more details on the CVR exercise, particularly the innovations that will ensure a safe and stress-free experience for registrants.
‘On whether the commission will demand the registrants providing their NIN, I want to say it clearly that we will not demand NIN for the CVR exercise,’ he submitted.
AFRICA TODAY NEWS, NEW YORK