2027: INEC must use existing voters register — Ex-INEC commissioner

Résumé détaillé

A former INEC commissioner, Festus Okoye, says the commission must use the existing voters’ register for the 2027 elections despite its credibility issues. Read More:…

A former National Commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Festus Okoye, has said the commission has no choice but to use the existing voters’ register for the 2027 general elections despite concerns over its credibility.

Okoye, however, insisted that Nigeria must compile a new biometric voters’ register immediately after the elections, describing the current database as opaque and neither clean nor genuine.

He made the remarks during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Tuesday, while responding to a question on what could give Nigerians confidence in the voters’ register to be used for the 2027 elections.

Responding to the question, Okoye said there was little that could be done to address the concerns before the next general elections, adding that the country would have to proceed with the existing register.

“The truth of the matter is that there is nothing we can do now. We have to go into the election with this current voters’ register,” he said.

He maintained that the solution was to undertake a fresh biometric registration exercise immediately after the elections.

“My position is that immediately after the conduct of the 2027 general election, Nigeria must have a new biometric voters’ register.

“I think that our voters’ register as presently constituted is opaque and cannot be said to be a clean voters’ register. It cannot be said to be a genuine voters’ register that we can go into an election with.

“But the truth of the matter is that there is nothing we can do now. We have to go into the election with this current voters’ register. And immediately after the election, we should have a new biometric voters’ register,” he added.

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