The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)?said on Monday that the nationwide continuous voter registration?(CVR) has been scheduled to take place after the Ondo governorship election.
Mr Kayode Idowu, Chief Press Secretary to INEC Chairman, made this known?on Monday in Abuja in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
“The ?voter registration will not be carried out in Ondo State with a decision that once the state gubernatorial ?election must have been over the voter registration will be done nationally by end of 2012.''
NAN recalled that the last? exercise was undertaken between January and February 2011 and more than?73.5 million eligible voters were captured.
Idowu said before the governorship elections in Kogi and Adamawa states INEC piloted the?exercise and the updated register was used to conduct the elections in both states.
He said that similar exercise was carried out in Bayelsa but because of the electoral law that stipulated that the register you were going to use for an election must be displayed 30 days before the election, the time was abridged by the Supreme Court judgment that was given in February.
He said for that the updated register was not used instead the 2011 register was used.
“Also as a result of the abridgement of time through the judgment of the Supreme Court, the commission cannot do the exercises in Sokoto, Cross River, and Kabbi states before their elections.''
Idowu said the commission also wanted to do the?exercise in Edo because there was enough time but the political stakeholders in Edo kicked against it with some acrimony.
He said they were alleging that some political parties were planning to use the exercise to falsify the register and given the acrimony that had dogged the registration the commission suspended?the exercise.
Idowu said the process of election would have been further perfected after the completion of the registration.
He said the pattern that the commission had established was that every subsequent election was an?improvement on the preceding ones as lessons were factored into the elections to be conducted thereafter.
Idowu said INEC was re-strategising its mode of operations in the conduct of the forthcoming governorship election in Ondo to ensure that people’s votes counted.
He said that had become so important as a result of the last Edo elections.
He said that various strategies which include creating a level playing ground and securing the polling arena in a way that the electorate would feel uninitiated by any party would again be factored into during the election.
“INEC had attained a measure of success in the collation of results, timely delivery of election materials and arrival of poll officials at their polling units, we are improving on this during all elections,'' he added. (NAN)