2023: No election timetable until electoral bill is signed into law – INEC

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said it will not release the timetable for 2023 General elections until the Electoral Act amendment bill is passed into law.

INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, said this in Abuja, on Tuesday, at the first quarterly meeting with political parties for the 2022.

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He said the commission was looking forward to a speedy passage of the bill, which will determine its preparation for the 2023 General Elections.

“On the Electoral Amendment Bill currently before the National Assembly, the commission is encouraged by the Senate President’s assurance to give priority attention to the Bill when the National Assembly reconvenes from its recess today, and the commitment by the President to assent to the Bill as soon as the issue of mode of primaries by political parties is resolved.”

“We look forward to a speedy passage of the Bill, which is crucial to our preparations for future elections. As soon as it is signed into law, the commission will quickly release the Timetable and Schedule of Activities for the 2023 General Election based on the new law,” Yakubu said.

He said 2022 is going to be a very busy year for the commission and the political parties, with the 2023 General Election just 396 days away, thus all the critical preparations must be concluded this year.

On the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR), Yakubu said as at 17th January, a total of 8,260,076 eligible Nigerians commenced the online pre-registration, completed the registration physically or applied for transfer to new voting locations, replacement of their Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs) or updated their voter information records as required by law.

He said, “The commission has been publishing weekly progress reports of the exercise. We are aware that Nigerians want to know when their PVCs will be available for collection. At the moment, the commission is undertaking the most comprehensive cleaning up of the data to ensure that only eligible citizens are added to the voters’ register for the 2023 General Election and will share our findings with Nigerians and the actual dates for the collection of the PVCs nationwide will be announced very soon.”

The INEC Chairman urged the political parties to continue to encourage eligible voters who have not registered to do so, bearing in mind that those who had registered at any time previously need not register again.