presented the voter register for the 2015 general elections to the
publicas mandated by the Electoral Act.
The lists of nominated candidates contesting for the Presidency and
National Assembly was also presented.
Presenting the voter register to political parties in Abuja on
Tuesday, the Director of Information Communication Technology at INEC,
Chidi Nwafor, said that about 68,833,476 Nigerians would be expected
to vote in the February general election.
The figure, according to Mr Nwafor, was arrived at after the
commission removed more than 4million people who did double
registration from the initial list of 73.5 million Nigerians who had
registered to vote.
The commission noted that ordinarily people who deliberately register
twice should have been prosecuted but this would be impossible with
over 4million people having committed the offence.
The Chairman of INEC, Professor Attahiru Jega, stated that the
commission had put a lot of efforts into ensuring that they capture
the actual figure of eligible voters in the country.
He then presented the list of nominated candidates contesting for the
Presidency and National Assembly.
"For the presidential election, there are 14 candidates duly nominated
by political parties. For the senatorial election, there are 739
candidates, and for the House of Representatives election, there are
1,780 candidates," he said.
He also dismissed reports that the commission could consider the use
of temporary voter cards, insisting that only permanent voter cards
would be used in the general election.
He added that the decentralisation of the distribution of the PVCs
was aimed at ensuring all eligible registered voters were not
disenfranchised.
The INEC boss again reiterated the commission's readiness for the polls.
"The commission is happy to say that it has received from government
all the funds required to conduct the 2015 general election. We can
say in effect that funding is no longer a challenge to the forthcoming
elections.
"INEC has always said it is preparing to conduct elections in all the
36 states and the federal capital, including the three north-eastern
states experiencing the challenge of insurgency," he said.
He, however, added that close working arrangement with the security
agencies who have the "responsibility for securing the election
environment" was the way to achieve this.
Section 20 of the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended) provides that the
voter register for an election be published at least thirty (30) days
before the elections.
While the list of candidates for the February 14 presidential and
National Assembly elections had been published on the commission's
website, January 27, 2015 has been fixed for the presentation of the
list of governorship and House of Assembly candidates.
--ChannelsTV
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