The House of Representatives has appealed to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to extend the ongoing Continuous Voters Registration (CVR) exercise across the country by two months.
The lower house made the appeal on Wednesday during plenary after a motion moved by its spokesman, Benjamin Kalu.
The exercise that has seen unprecedented crowd throng INEC registration outlets is scheduled to wind down on June 30. Mr Kalu said shutting out eligible Nigerians may lead to frustration among the prospective registrants, and in some cases, unrest at some registration centres.
He argued that the right to vote was critically important to the health and legitimacy of the country’s democracy, as well as electoral integrity.
Mr Kalu stated that if nothing was done to improve the shortage of voter registration equipment, and extend the deadline for voters registration, millions of Nigerians would be disenfranchised, which would jeopardise the integrity of the 2023 general elections.
He added that INEC should also deploy an additional 30 voters registration machines in each local government area, train and deploy ad-hoc staff to improve the shortage of manpower at registration centres, a motion adopted by the green chamber which mandated the Committee on Electoral Matters to engage INEC in order to examine and proffer solutions.
