Due to the rush and the numerous number of people that haven’t registered to vote at the 2019 general elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Tuesday has extended the deadline till August 31st 2018.
The National Commissioner and Member, Voter Education and Publicity Committee, Malam Mohammed Haruna, in a statement in Abuja, said the commission had extended the Continuous Voters Registration (CVR) exercise by two weeks.
Haruna stressed that the commission has registered over 12 million new voters in the ongoing Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) across the country.
According to him, the commission has decided to extend the CVR to August 31, 2018, stressing that exercise would continue in all the designated registration centres every day, including weekends, but excluding public holidays, between 9a.m. and 5p.m.
Also towards the 2019 General Elections “At its regular meeting on Tuesday, August 14, 2018, INEC took a number of decisions;
According to him, the commission said it received a total of 144 applications from political associations seeking registration as political parties and had approved the registration of 23 new political parties, bringing the number of political parties to 91.
Haruna stressed that the decision was taken after a rigorous process of evaluation in accordance with the Constitution and Electoral Act, which included assessment of the constitutions and manifestos of the intending parties and verification of membership of their executive committees and offices.
He noted that the 23 associations met all the requirements and have been registered as political parties.
Haruna stated,
“This brings the number of political parties to 91 and will be the last round of registration of parties until after the general elections on February 16, 2019. This suspension is in line with Section 78 (1) of the Electoral Act, which requires all applications for registration as political party to be concluded latest six months to a general election.”
He added that the newly registered political parties would receive their Certificates of Registration from the commission on Thursday, August 16, 2018 at the commission’s headquarters.