2019 race kicks off as INEC's voter's registration gains momentum

2019 race kicks off as INEC's voter's registration gains momentum

- The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is already getting prepared for the 2019 general elections

- INEC will commence the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise on April 27

- It will be held in its local government areas offices in all 774 LGAs of Nigeria

INEC will commence the Continous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise on April 27 in its local government areas offices in all 774 LGAs of Nigeria.

The exercise is designed to update the voter register with the registration of citizens who turned 18 after the last voter registration exercise; or those who couldn’t register in previous CVR exercises.

Uncollected Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) will be distributed during the exercise as well issues relating to transfer of registered voters, lost or omitted PVCs will be addressed during the exercise.

Nigerians will return to the polls in 2019 to vote for their various leaders

Youth Initiative for Advocacy, Growth & Advancement (YIAGA) in a statement sent to NAIJ.com on Wednesday, April 26 said it will deploy its Watching The Vote (WTV) election observation methodology during the CVR exercise.

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The statement signed by the executive director of YIAGA, said the observation mission is geared towards enhancing the credibility and transparency of the voter registration process.

''It will also generate data and knowledge for influencing electoral policy formulation and implementation in the buildup to the 2019 general elections,'' the statement noted..

YIAGA’s #WatchingTheVote is an advanced observation methodology that uses well-established statistical principles and sophisticated information technology for reporting and assessment of electoral activities.

Using this methodology, YIAGA says it will provide the most timely and accurate information on the conduct of the CVR, PVC distribution and transfer of registered voters.

CVR and PVC are important to the electoral process

For the CVR, YIAGA WTV is deploying 260 citizen observers to 260 randomly selected local government area registration centers spread across all the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory based on established statistical principles.

On assigned days, WTV observers will be stationary at the local government area registration center as from 9:00am – 3:00pm daily to observe the process. Throughout the registration process, WTV observers will also serve as mobile observers reporting on any critical incident they witness or are reported to them.

All WTV observers will send in their observation reports via coded text message using their mobile phones. The reports will be received directly into a sophisticated database located at the YIAGA’s secretariat in Abuja for review, verification and analysis.

In the NAIJ.com video below, INEC officials indicted for bribery and corruption during the River state rerun elections were arraigned at the Federal High Court in Abuja.