INEC To Delist Under Age, Dead Voters From Register

One of the cardinal decisions the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has taken ahead the 2027 general election, is to remove the names of underage voters from its regsters, so that it can have a clean copy of the register.

To achieve this, the Prof Joash  Amupitan-led commission has urged Nigerians to identify the under age voters in their communities so that they can be delisted from the register before next year.

Those who know insist that the problem of under age voters is mostly predominant in the norhern part of the country,and it’s a welcomedevelopment that the commissionhas decided to take action as part of its efforts to make the election credible.

According to the election umpire, it will also ensure that double registrations, dead persons and other ineligible names are removed fromthe register before the election begins early next year. the commission has slated January 2027 as the date to start the election across the coutry.

INEC’s National Commissioner and Chairman of the Information and Voter Education Committee, IVEC, Mohammed Kudu Haruna, made the revelation during an interview with Nigerian Tribune newspapers, saying the commission decided to end the Continous Voter Regsitration early to enable it takecare ofthis problemsbefore the election kicks off.

Haruna said the commissionwill require the assistance of wellmeaning Nigerians tobeable to remove underage voters from the register,urging the public to notify the commission ‘if you are aware that someone is underage and is on our voters register.’

He said the commission will publish the temporary list of voters before the election, so that those who have information will be able to make it before the final list is published.

“We have to confirm first if there are underage. That is why we have to stop the CVR. You know some people were saying we must extend it. But there are backend need that we need to do, including this cleanup,” he said. When asked to provide an update on voters register cleanup and speak about what the Commission was doing about questions around the underage in the register,” Haruna said.

“You know we have ABIS where we clean up if somebody has registered more than once. Of course, we will publish the list. When we publish the list, we expect members of the public to make claims and raise objections.”

He explained that the public will have about one to two weeks to scrutinise the register after publication.

“For instance, if you are aware that someone is underage and is on our voters register, you draw our attention to it so that we clean it or a situation where someone is dead. This takes a week or two so that people can respond, raise objections and make claims,” Haruna stated.

“Underage are not the only category of people that should not be on the voters register. Foreigners too should not be on the voters register and somebody who has registered more than once. In the process of that cleanup, that is where we raised those questions,” he stated..