Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Prof Yakubu Mahmood presenting the national register of voters to chairman and secretary of one of the political parties on Wednesday in Abuja.
Abasifreke Effiong
The chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Prof. Yakubu Mahmood, has said that the commission is not contemplating an adjustment to the 2023 election timetable.
Prof Mahmood who gave the assurance on Wednesday 22th January in Abuja during the presentation of national register of voters to political parties, said the election will not be postponed.
He said the commission has already deployed substantial quantity of sensitive and non-sensitive election materials to some States.
“The Commission is not contemplating any adjustment to the election timetable, let alone the postponement of the General Election. For the avoidance of doubt, the Presidential and National Assembly elections will hold on Saturday 25th February 2023 while Governorship and State Assembly elections will hold two weeks later on Saturday 11th March 2023.”
“The repeated assurance by the security agencies for the adequate protection of our personnel, materials and processes also reinforces our determination to proceed. The 2023 General Election will hold as scheduled. Any report to the contrary is not the official position of the Commission.”
“Already, substantial quantities of sensitive and non-sensitive materials have been deployed to various locations across the country. The last batch of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) has been received while the ongoing configuration of the critical technology in readiness for elections will soon be completed.”
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“In the last two days, we commenced the airlifting of other sensitive materials to States across the country. Already, some of the materials for 17 States in three geo-political zones have been delivered. Furthermore, 13,868,441 Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs) have been printed, delivered to States and are being collected by citizens as new voters or by existing voters who applied for transfer or replacement of cards as provided by law.”
“In short, at no time in the recent history of the Commission has so much of the forward planning and implementation been accomplished 44 days ahead of a General Election.”
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The chairman said the 93,469,008 have been registered and eligible to vote on the 2023 general elections. This comprises 49,054,162 male and 44,414,846 female.
The Commission said it has devolved the collection of PVCs to 8,809 registration areas/wards nationwide while appreciating Nigerians for queuing patiently at designated centers to collect their PVCs.
Meanwhile, INEC has presented the national register of voters to the leadership of all political parties in the country.
