60% of eligible voters unregistered, Reps reveal

The House of Representatives on Wednesday lamented that about 60 per cent of eligible voters were unregistered between 2011 and 2015.

The lawmakers accused the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), of breaching Sections 10(1) of the Electoral Act, 2010, which instruct that registration of voters should be continuous.

The House therefore set up an investigative panel to within four weeks find out why INEC is breaching the electoral act.

The House decision was sequel to a motion moved by Benjamin Ikani-Okolo on the need to investigate breaches of the Act by INEC.

During the plenary presided over by Speaker Yakubu Dogara, the House said that “24,346,157” Nigerians turned 18 years between 2011 and 2015.

Of that number it said, only about 9,913,398 out of the eligible voters were registered by INEC, showing that the electoral body failed to register 14, 432,761.

The House further revealed, that 9.9million voters registered out of the 24.3million who attained the voting age within the time in question, represented “only 40 per cent of the total number of Nigerians that turned 18 years.”

The motion read in part, “The House is aware that number of registered voters increased only minimally from 58,920,078 in 2011 to 68,833,476, representing only 17 per cent increase from 2011 to 2015 in aggregate of all states in Nigeria.

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“Concerned that INEC has over the years been breaching the provisions of the Electoral Act on continuous voter registration by failing to comply with the law or has deliberately been neglecting its mandate in that regard.”

In his contribution, House Minority Leader, Mr. Leo Ogor said fixing specific dates for voter registration was a breach of the Electoral Act. The law is very clear. It is a continuous exercise and we must not wait till elections are close, then we begin to rush everything.

“In every local government headquarters in this country, there is at least one INEC office. Voter registration should be going on continuously to capture the majority of eligible voters. But, INEC will not do its work; they like to rush things when elections are by the corner.”

The House then passed the motion in a majority voice vote for investigation within four weeks, stating specifically among other things that INEC has to answer questions on alleged breach of “Sections 9(1); 10(1)(3) and (5) and 12(1) of the Electoral Act.”

 

 

 

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