2015: INEC to Prosecute Voters Involved in Double Registration

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As a build up to the 2015 general election, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has threatened to prosecute anyone caught in act of double registration.

The commission said anyone caught in any form of electoral fraud would not be spared henceforth.

Disclosing this in Jos, the Plateau State capital, at a press briefing to sensitise the public on the impeding Continuous Voters’ Registration (CVR), a Deputy Director, Voters’ Education Public Affairs and General Civil Society, Mr. Osaretin Imahiyereobo, said CVR was not meant for voters that had earlier registered, but to provide an avenue for those that were not up to 18 years of age as at the last registration in 2011.

He stressed that anyone that had registered then has no business with the CVR exercise, which he said would commence in Plateau State by November or any other time before the end of the year.

According to him, the exercise which shall be undertaken solely by INEC staff, shall be preceded by training of the concerned staff.

“There will be a team of two Registration Area Officers (RAOs) under the supervision of the Electoral Officer, who will be assisted by an Assistant Electoral Officer to mange three registration areas.

“The team will carry out registration exercise in the three areas for 15 days, covering one registration area in five days. The repeat of this cycle shall be determined by the commission for the year 2014 till election year.

“Each team will have two laptops, one DDC machine for data capturing and the other laptop to host both valid register of voters and invalid register of voters, all in a searchable PDF format. The laptop that hosts the list of voters and invalid register of voters will be used to verify the status of a prospective registrant.

“If a person, who had registered before could not find his name in the displayed register, the RAO will confirm the non-existence of the applicant’s name in the register. If the name does not appear in the list of registers, the biometrics of the applicant shall be captured as a new registrant”, Imahiyereobo explained further, adding that “after now CVR will become an yearly exercise to update INEC Voters register.”

He said so far, only 25 political parties were registered with INEC as at August 15 this year, stating that after the elections, any political party that had no elective representative at either the national or state assembly shall be de-registered.