Several citizens have trooped to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) website to participate in the online Continuous Voter Registration exercise which commenced on Monday June 28,

Leading political parties are also mobilizing their members for the registration exercise with some setting up computer/data collection centres where their non-computer literate members could get assistance to be registered and captured into the INEC data base.

The surge in traffic to the website is being fueled further by the creation of new voting units with voters making frantic efforts to relocate their voting units to centers nearer to their homes.

Reviewing events since the commencement of the exercise, INEC’s National Commissioner, Mr. Festus Okoye said that “24 hours after the exercise commenced, 59,331 accounts have been created and 42,211 applications received.

“Out of this number, 27,759 individuals applied for new voter pre-registration services. Also, 11,177 requested for voter review record; 1,669 applied for voter transfer;853 asked for information update; 335 applied for replacement of lost or damaged PVCs; while 418 applicants requested for uncollected PVCs” he said.

The Commission has promised to provide weekly updates on the activities on its portal and the online registration status.

It will be recalled that this phase of the online exercise is for the following categories:
• 18 years and above who have never registered who have never registered before.
• Registered voters who have had any problem during accreditation for past election with either their PVC or fingerprints.
• Registered voters who want to transfer their voting location from one place to another.
• Registered voters who want to correct issues with their data such as misspelt names, dates of births etc.
• Registered voters whose PVCs are lost or damaged.

The Commission has also announced that physical continuous voter registration will commence on July 19, 2021 at INEC state and Local Government offices nationwide. According to INEC, those that are unable to register online will be attended to from July 19, 2021.

According to Mr. Okoye who is also the Chairman Information and Voter Education Committee, “it is INEC’s expectation that every eligible Nigerian will have an opportunity to register as the CVR is expected to continue for at least one year.

Scheduled appointments for online registration will begin on July 19th while the commencement date for physical CVR in all the 2,673 registration centres will be determined based on the security situation in the country.