The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Friday met with stakeholders in Katsina State on modalities for a successful the Continuous Voter Registration (CRV).
Speaking, INEC Commissioner in the state, Prof. Yahaya Makarfi, said the meeting is aimed at discussing key areas like crowd management, voter education, and logistics with local leaders and party representatives.
“This meeting was called to identify faults, and areas to improve, especially in terms of efficiency, and general delivery on the conduct of a hitch-free CVR exercise,” he said.
According to him, the exercise began on Aug. 18.
“We are bound to continue this exercise. You will recall that this was suspended in 2022, leading to the 2023 general elections.
“The commission has actually been circulating information on the resumption of this CVR exercise. Therefore, we saw the need to engage with our stakeholders at the state level.
“We have had various engagements with all our stakeholders at each of the local government levels, with the idea to rob minds, and share ideas.”
Also, Ibrahim Hashim, the INEC Head of Department, Voter Education, Publicity, Gender and Inclusivity, said as at the end of the last CVR, Katsina has more than 3.5 million registered voters.
“The CVR 2025 which bagan on Aug. 18, will end on Aug. 30.
“Let us bear in mind that the exercise is not a general registration, but continuation from that of 2011.
“The CVR exercise is a window of opportunity for the citizens who turned 18 years after the last voter registration, and citizens who for one reason or another could not register in the previous exercise, especially citizens who returned from diaspora.”
According to him, aside from registration of voters, CVR takes care of incidents like transfer of registered voters from one delimitation to another, one state to another, registration area to another or polling unit to another.
He further explained that the exercise will also take care of updating of Permanent Voters Card (PVC), correction, addition or subtraction of name and Date of Birth.
Hashim noted that replacement of PVC, in case of loss, defaced, damaged or destroyed PVCs will be taken care of during the period of the exercise.
The INEC official revealed that CVR shall be carried out at the state office and the 34 Local Government Area (LGA) offices of the Commission in the state.
“This exercise will take place between the hours of 9am to 3pm daily, excluding weekends and public holidays, going through two modes of registration.
“Pre-Registration (Online), https://cvr.inecnigeria.org, where the portal will allow a prospective voter to submit enrolment information.
“We also have In-Person Registration, where registration will be completed at the state or LGA offices with physical biometric capture.”
According to Hashim, failure for a registrant after the online registration to go for biometric capture at the state or LGA offices, means invalid registration.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that some of the stakeholders including representatives of the CSOs, people with special needs, security agencies, political parties among others.
NAN
