Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has made a case for the over seven million Nigerians, who carried out their voter pre-registration online but could not complete the process at physical centres before the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
In a statement issued on Tuesday via its verified Twitter handle, SERAP insistedt that the commission must urgently allow the applicants complete their registration so that they can vote in the 2023 elections.
It can be recalled that INEC had earlier disclosed that over seven million Nigerians who carried out their voter pre-registration online could not complete the process at physical centres.
INEC revealed this as the continuous voter registration exercise (CVR) ended on Sunday.
The commission, in June 2021, commenced the CVR exercise via its online portal where Nigeria provided their biodata and required documents, after which applicants would visit INEC designated centres to complete the process physically, with a biometric capturing.
According to a report released by the commission, 10,487,972 Nigerians carried out their pre-registration online.
The commission stated only 3,444,378 Nigerians representing 32.8 percent, completed the process at a physical centre.
The 7,043,594 persons accounted for over 67 percent of those who began their registration process online, but could not obtain a voter card, which implied that they will not be able to vote in the 2023 general elections.
Meanwhile, INEC said a total of 12,298,944 Nigerians completed their voter registration, 8,854,566 of which were persons, who did their registration entirely at a physical centre.
The commission had earlier fixed June 30 as the deadline for the CVR ahead of the 2023 elections, but extended it till July after a federal high court in Abuja stopped the commission from ending the voter registration.
