The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Thursday disclosed that 7,746 deceased voters were removed from the national voter register across the country as of December 2022.
Speaking at a press briefing in Abuja, the Director of Voter Education and Publicity, Victoria Etta-Messi, noted that thorough cleaning of the voter registration is usually done before every general election.
According to the electoral umpire, one major issue is the difficulty in removing deceased persons due to gaps in official death records.
However, the stakeholders at the review recommended that INEC strengthen collaboration with agencies such as the National Population Commission (NPC) and the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) to identify deceased voters.
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INEC further noted concerns about declining voter turnout. The 2023 presidential and National Assembly elections recorded a turnout of 27.5 per cent, down from 35.6 per cent in 2019.
“Seven thousand, seven hundred and forty-six decreased persons across the 36 states and the FCT were removed from the National Register of voters as of December 2022.
“Problems with official death records continue to make it very difficult for INEC to remove deceased registrants.
“One suggestion from this review was to strengthen collaboration with other agencies such as NIMC and NPC to identify deceased persons in the register and remove them.
“In addition, the commission could suspend individuals who have not voted in the past three elections from the register and request them to revalidate their registration,” INEC noted in its review.
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