The Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC) has finally launched an online portal for Nigerians to register as voters.
The portal will go live on Monday when the online registration is scheduled to commence.
The electoral umpire stopped the continuous voter registration in August 2018, about six months before the last elections. As of then, the total number of registered voters in Nigeria stood at 84 million, just 42 percent of the countrys population.
At least 11 million voters were yet to collect their permanent voter cards (PVCs) when the Commission stopped distributing them weeks before the election.
The INEC chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, told newsmen, in Abuja yesterday, that the portal was created for intending registrants to commence the process online by providing relevant details before booking an appointment to visit the Commissions office.
He further stated that they can then visit any INEC state or LGA office to complete the process from July 19, the same day the physical registration is scheduled to start.
Yakubu said that as a result of security challenges in some parts of the country, the commission decided to start the registration online before it commences fully at all the 2,673 registration centres nationwide on a later date.
Mahmood added that INEC has acquired all the equipment for the voter registration and has also planned for the deployment of 5,346 staff to the registration centres.
Among the equipment he mentioned is a new registration machine called the INEC voter enrolment device, (IVED), which will replace the laptop-based old direct data capture machine (DDCM).
