The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has called for a speedy passage of the Electoral Amendment Bill, stating that it was crucial to the commission’s preparations for the 2023 general elections.

“We look forward to a speedy passage of the Bill, which is crucial to our preparations for future elections,” INEC chairman, Mahmood Yakubu said.

Mr Yakubu who spoke at the commission’s first quarterly meeting with political parties for the year 2022, on Tuesday, in Abuja, said INEC was looking forward to the passage to release its timetable for the 2023 general elections.

“We are also encouraged by the commitment of the President to assent to the Bill as soon as the issue of mode of primaries by political parties is resolved.

“As soon as it is signed into law, the commission will quickly release the timetable and schedule of activities for the 2023 General Elections, based on the new law,’’ Mr Yakubu said.

He said that year 2022 was going to be a very busy year for the commission and the political parties, as the 2023 general election was just 396 days away and all the critical preparations must be concluded in 2022.

He disclosed that as at Monday, a total of 8,260,076 eligible Nigerians commenced the online pre-registration, completed the registration physically in the ongoing Continuous Voter Registration (CVR).

Mr Yakubu said that the figure also included voters who applied for a transfer to new voting locations, replacement of their Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs), or updated their voter information records as required by law.

The CVR, which commenced in June 2021, has entered the third quarter.

“At the moment, the commission is undertaking the most comprehensive cleaning of the data, to ensure that only eligible citizens were added to the voters’ register for the 2023 general election,” the INEC chairman said:

“We will share our findings with Nigerians and the actual dates for the collection of the PVCs nationwide, will be announced very soon,” he added.

In his remarks, National Chairman, Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC), Yabagi Sani, urged INEC to take measures to rectify observed lapses in the November 2021 Anambra governorship election.

(NAN)