By TINA TIMOTHY

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says it has resolved to devolve the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise to Ward level in both Ekiti and Osun States, to enable more citizens registerfor the forthcomingGovernorship election in Ekiti and Osun States which will hold on June 18 and July 16, 2022 respectively.

INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, disclosed this at a meetingwith Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs)held in Abuja, on Tuesday, February 15, 2022, adding that afterwards, the CVR would be devolved nationwide.

“In view of the forthcoming elections, the Commission has decided to devolve the CVR exercise to Ward level in both Ekiti and Osun States to enable more citizens register.Similarly, in order to provide more eligible voters with the opportunity to register, the Commission is considering the devolution of the exercise nationwide beyond our State and Local Government offices where the registration currently takes place. The devolution of the CVR exercise to other designated centres is one of the major issues for discussion at this meeting,” the INEC Chairman said.

Yakubu, while welcoming theResident Electoral Commissioners to their first meeting this year,saidthe Commission would also strive find solution to polling units congestion by expanding voter access in Ekiti and Osun states.

“Over the next few weeks, the Commission will intensify efforts to address the issue ahead of the forthcoming Ekiti and Osun Governorship elections and ultimately the 2023 General Election. Finding a solution to this issue is one of the reasons for convening this meeting.

“Closely related to the issue of CVR is the balanced distribution of voters to polling units nationwide. Last year, the Commission achieved the historic feat of expanding voter access to polling units nationwide. The idea is to decongest the densely populated polling units by converting the erstwhile Voting Points (VPs) and Voting Point Settlements (VPS) to Polling Units and relocating some of them to unserved and underserved areas to make it easier for voters on Election Day,” the INEC boss said.

He said that after conducting the Area Council election in Abuja, INEC was preparing to conduct bye-elections in four States of the Federation to fill six vacancies in the House of Representatives and some State Houses of Assembly.

He said that the Commission would review and improve functionalities of technologies deployed in recent elections, including BVAS and IReV for biometric accreditation of voters in the forthcoming bye-elections and off-season Governorship elections before the 2023 General Election.

“The Commission remains convinced that the deployment of technology in our elections safeguards the integrity of the vote and provides a better guarantee for electoral credibility than the best manual process,” Yakubu added.