Date: 2021-09-10

The Independent National Electoral Commission says it has registered a total of 22,229 voters in Kwara since the beginning of Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) in June.

The INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner in Kwara, Malam Garuba Madami, made this known in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria on Thursday in Ilorin.

He said the voter registration was done through online and physical capturing in all the 16 local government areas of Kwara as well as INEC state office.

The REC added that out of the 22,229 so far registered, 10,551 were males while 11,678 were females.

He said that out of these figures, 30 Persons Living With Disabilities (PLWD) were registered, comprising 22 males and eight females.

Madami said the first quarter of the CVR would end on Sept. 23, adding that the list will be displayed for claims and objection between Sept. 24 and 30.

He added that the second quarter of the CVR would run from Sept. 24 to Dec. 30, 2021, while the exercise would end on July 11, 2022.

The REC therefore warned the people of the state against double registration as this constituted electoral offence punishable under the Electoral Act.

He also advised the underage not to register, adding that people under the age of 18 are not allowed to register as any underage caught would be handed over to the police.

Madami said he was not satisfied with the figures so far registered and called on politicians to mobilise their members to register as voters.

"It is the political parties that should mobilise the supporters to register as voters.

'It is the political parties that would benefit from such registration, so they should sensitise their supporters to register," Madami said.

He, however, said that the commission would embark on aggressive and sustained publicity from September to create awareness for the people to register as voters.

According to him, his target was to increase the number of registered voter in Kwara from 1,376,372 to 3.5 million.

"Therefore, mobilisation of voters should be a joint effort of political parties and INEC.

"Political parties jettison this assignment and it's left to Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

"The number of Permanent Voters Card (PVC) collected is the number of votes that can be casted during election," he explained.

NAN reports that any Nigerian that has attained 18 years of age is eligible to register as voter.

Madami also said that registered voters who had issues with accreditation during the last exercise can register as well as voters who want to transfer their PVCs to another location and those with wrongly spelt names. (NAN)