The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has invalidated the registration of more than a million voters ahead of the 2023 general elections scheduled for February and March.

Citing “double, multiple and ineligible” registration, the commission delisted 1,126,359″ new registrants between June 2021 and January 2022.

INEC disclosed this on Monday in a statement.

“The commission informed Nigerians that out of the 2,523,458 (two million, five hundred and twenty-three thousand, four hundred and fifty-eight) fresh registrants that registered between 28th June 2021 and 14th January 2022, 1,126,359 (one million, one hundred and twenty-six thousand, three hundred and fifty-nine) records were found to be invalid and consequently delisted,” said INEC.

Apprising Nigerians of the latest development in pre-election preparations, the electoral body added, “The cleaning up of the register of voters using the Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS) is ongoing since the suspension of the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) on July 31, 2022.”

Upon conclusion of the clean-up, INEC noted that “valid registrants will be added to the existing national register of voters before publishing same nationwide for scrutiny, claims and objections by citizens as required by section 19 (1) of the Electoral Act 2022.”

While noting that ABIS for registrations between January 15 and July 2022 nears completion, INEC disclosed entries that failed to meet its “business rules” were detected and consequently invalidated to preserve electoral integrity.

It remains unclear if the delisted would-be voters would have a second chance to register before the elections and participate in the voting process that will birth the nation’s new set of leaders.