At the end of August, 2018, INEC disclosed that it had registered 14,551,482 new voters, bringing the total number of registered voters in Nigeria to about 84 million. INEC has gone further to implement the national display of the Voters’ Register to receive claims and objections and tidy up the Voters’ Register for the general elections in February and March of 2019. INEC stated that about 300,000 names were removed from the Register of Voters for various reasons using the Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS).
In the display of the Voters’ Register carried out nationwide, there appeared to have been very poor participation. The display of the Register itself was not very well done, as voters complained that the exercise was not done in a way to allow for proper and efficient viewing needed for claims and objections to be made. Members of the public also did not understand its purpose and what they were supposed to do.
As Nigerians prepare for the elections, expectation is that the Voters’ Register will meet the requirement of integrity required to carry out free, fair and credible elections.