The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said it plans to resume Continuous Voters Registration (CVR) across the country in the second quarter of 2021.
INEC Head of ICT, Ibadan, Wunmi Balogun, said this at the training of electoral officers and assistants electoral officers on access to Polling Units (PUs) in Ibadan on Monday.
Mrs Balogun added that the commission would be using INEC Voters Enrolment Devices for the CVR instead of the Direct Data Capturing Machine.
The Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in the state, Mutiu Agboke, said the training was to address the challenges being faced by voters on access to polling units during elections.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the workshop was specifically held for INEC’s head of departments, electoral officers and assistants electoral officers.
Mr Agboke said the problem was multifaceted, saying that the commission was determined to solve it nationally so that there would be no claim of being left out in any part of the country,
“What we are doing is to x-ray the paper that we have with our staff, particularly those manning our offices in the Local Government Areas (LGAs)and their assistants.
“These officers are being taken through the process to understand the issues involved when we say what are the challenges faced by voters in accessing polling units.
“We are making them know the issues involved, that where there are places where voters cannot access the polling unit based on the terrain, we need to look at it.”
“Also where there are places polling units are sited, in a domain or community or terrain of politician/political fathers; INEC will look at it.
“We are also looking at whereby we have excessive crowds in a particular location that make it very difficult for voters.” he said.
The REC said that inability of voters to access polling units could cause voter apathy, adding that apathy was what the commission wanted to prevent.
