Mrs Amina Bala Zakari

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said it would commence Continuous Voter Registration in Kogi and Bayelsa on Sept. 2 through Sept. 7, ahead of the governorship elections in both states, NAN reported.

According to the commission’s daily bulletin issued on Monday in Abuja, the exercise will take place at the local government areas in the states from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily. It stated that the five-day exercise would afford opportunity for three groups of eligible persons to be registered.

The groups, the commission said, were those who were eligible but did not register before the 2015 general elections and who were registered but their names were not in the voters’ register. “The other is those who have attained the age of 18 years since the last registration exercise,” it added.

The commission, therefore, urged prospective voters in both states to turn out and take advantage of the exercise to register in order to vote in the forthcoming elections. It stated that the commission had already had a stakeholders’ meeting in Kogi and would have a similar one in Bayelsa on Thursday.

Meanwhile, the commission has urged election observers to continue to make meaningful observations and recommendations that would further strengthen the electoral process. Its bulletin quoted the Director of Voter Education and Publicity, Mr Oluwole Osaze-Uzzi, as making the call at a stakeholders’ post-election review of gender responsiveness during elections.

It said that Osaze-Uzzi, who was represented by the Deputy Director of Publicity of the commission, Mr Nick Dazang, said that INEC had immensely benefited from the recommendation of elections observers. He said that such recommendations had been factored into the commission’s plans towards strengthening the country’s electoral process.

“It is what observers say about an election that gives it credibility. That is why it is always important, especially for a growing democracy like that of Nigeria, to always factor and invite observers and report the process before, during and after the election,” Osaze-Uzzi said.