The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), says the commission is not contemplating any adjustment to the election timetable, let alone postpone the 2023 general election.
INEC Chairman Prof. Mahmood Yakubu said this at the presentation of electronic copy of the 93,469,008 voter register to leaders of political parties on Wednesday in Abuja.
He said the commission is prepared for the 2023 general elections and had now successfully implemented 11 out of the 14 activities on schedule for the elections.
He said following the display of the voters’ register nationwide and the conclusion of claims and objections by citizens, a new national register of voters has been compiled.
Yakubu said after the cleaning up of the data from the last Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) from June 2021 to July 2022, where over 9 million new voters were added to the existing 84,004,084 voters, the preliminary register voters was 93,522,272.
He said when the register was presented to Nigerians for claims and objections as required by law, INEC received 53,264 objections from Nigerians to the prevalence of ineligible persons on the register by virtue of age, citizenship or death, which were verified and removed from the register.
He reiterated INEC commitment to transparent, credible and inclusive 2023 General Election, saying INEC would continue to take every step to protect the sanctity of the votes cast by citizens and to deal with infractions.
This according to Yakubu, includes the arrest and prosecution of persons that attempt to perpetuate illegality at Polling Units on Election Day, be it underaged voters or vote buyers.
Responding, IPAC Chairman, Yabagi Sani commended INEC efforts in ensuring that power is peacefully transferred in the country; in spite the challenges and plots by anti-democratic agents to truncate the process.
Sani, who was represented by IPAC General Secretary, Yusuf Dantalle said political parties were resolved to support INEC, security agencies and traditional rulers for peaceful conduct of 2023 general election.
He said that party leaders were confidence in INEC technology for the election including BVAS and IReV for electronic transmission of result.
Sani said the deployment of the technology would discourage vote buying and situation where people write election results from their rooms and ask INEC official to declare it for people to go to court.