Reps want voter registration centres in 360 constituencies

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The House of Representatives has called on the Independent National Electoral Commission to locate a voter registration centre in all federal constituencies in Nigeria.

There are 360 federal constituencies in the country.  The House also urged INEC to extend the period for voter registration due to low turnout, stating that no voting centre should be closed down regardless of low or absence of voters.

In addition, the House urged the commission to immediately deploy enumerators to conduct registration in all federal constituencies of the country to ensure that eligible voters who don’t have access to the Internet to do so online can be captured.

The lawmakers also mandated INEC to submit to its Committee on Electoral Matters on monthly basis, the figures so far captured as well ensure that voting centres are provided with adequate security.

These were the resolutions that followed the unanimous adoption of a motion moved by Abubakar Yalleman, titled ‘Call on the Independent National Electoral Commission to Urgently Deploy Physical Enumerators and Other Assistance to Conduct New Voter Registration Across all Federal Constituencies.’

Moving the motion, Yalleman said, “The House is concerned that Mallam Madori/Kaugama Federal Constituency and many other federal constituencies have been placed at disadvantage position due to non-availability of registration centres and officials, inadequate power supply, insufficient operational tools and equipment as well as inadequate enlightenment programme, the effect of which are low figure recorded within the constituencies.

“The House is worried that if the voter’s registration exercise is concluded without addressing the above-mentioned challenges, thousands of potential voters in Nigeria will be disenfranchised during the forthcoming elections.

“The House is concerned that given current realities in the constituency, INEC may need to engage in both physical and virtual processes by introducing physical enumerators to make up for the lapses in the online registration exercise.”

In his submission, Yusuf Gagdi (APC, Plateau) lamented that most of his constituents do not have access to telephone or the Internet.

Also, Aniekan Umanah (PDP, Akwa Ibom) said, “In most constituencies and units today, INEC lacks materials to carry out registration. Sometimes you get to a local government area and they have just one or two laptops. People wait everyday and nothing happens.”