The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says it will shut down the ongoing nationwide Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) Pre-Registration online portal in April in preparation for the 2023 general elections.

Festus Okoye, INEC spokesman, said this in an interview on Thursday in Lagos.

“We are going to shut down the online portal latest by April but the physical registration will be going on until June,” Mr Okoye noted.

“After June, the possibility of extending the CVR process is next to impossible because we have to clean up the register, do claims and objections, and we have to print PVCs.

“People have to collect PVCs and we have to give every registered political party the voters register that will be used for the 2023 general election.

“The law has obligated us to stop everything relating to voter registration at a particular point in time.”

Mr Okoye said shutting down the portal had become imperative for INEC to clear those who had done their online pre-registration for the purpose of capturing their biometrics.

The INEC spokesman said the fourth and the final quarter of the ongoing CVR, billed to start on April 11, would be rounded off in June, urging Nigerians to do the needful at the right time, to avoid last minute rush.

He said the commission had seven services on the online registration portal for eligible voters as against six in previous registrations.

He added that the seventh allowed people to locate where their Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) were domiciled.

For those who registered during the first, second and third quarters of the ongoing CVR, he said the chairman of the commission will soon let them know the date and time when the new PVCs will be ready and the points of collection.

“Some of these PVCs have already been printed and we want people to come and collect their PVCs.

“The fourth and the last quarter will end sometime in June. Now, we do not want a situation where people will begin to rush to register at the 11th hour,  to create a surge in our local government and state offices.

“We want people to approach the state or local government offices now and get registered. We have also devolved the CVR to the various registration areas/wards on a rotational basis. We want people to go and register now.

“We do not want a situation where people will overwhelm our offices toward the end of June. People should seize the opportunity and do the needful at this point in time,” the INEC boss said.