The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has approved the methodology for the impending national Continous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise.
The methodology of the CVR exercise which is to be flagged off before the end of the year is as follows:
(1.) There will be a team of 2 Registration Area Officers (RAOs) under the supervision of the electoral officer assisted by assistant electoral officer to manage 3 registration areas. They shall all be INEC staff.
(2.) The team will carry out registration exercise in the three registration areas for 15 days, covering one registration area in 5 days.
(3.) The repeat of this cycle shall be determined by the Commission for the year 2014 till election year.
(4.) Each team will have two laptops, one DDC machine for data capture and the other laptop to host both valid register of voters and invalid register of voters, all in searchable PDF format.
(5.) The laptop that hosts the list of voters and the invalid register of voters will be used to verify the status of a prospective registrant.
(a.) If a person who had registered before could not find his name in the displayed register, the RAO will confirm the non-existence of the applicant’s name in the register. If the name does not appear in the list of registers, the biometrics of the applicant shall be captured as a new registrant.
(b.) In the case of a new registrant he/she shall be issued with a Temporary Voter Card (TVC).
(c.) However, in case of registrant with incomplete records he/she shall surrender his/her TVC and be issued with a new one.
(d.) Where the name of the prospective registrant is found on the displayed register he/she shall not be registered and advised to leave the area.
(6.) A disclaimer form will be issued to every intending registrant to complete in order to confirm that he/she has not registered before.
(7.) The laptop for data capture will be configured for each registration area where registration is to be carried out.
(8.) The laptop for data capture is also preloaded with all the registration centre codes (i.e polling unit codes) of the registration area for which the laptop is configured. The RAO MUST ensure that correct registration centre delineation code of the applicant is picked in order to avoid an applicant being registered in a wrong registration centre.
(9.) Each team will be accompanied by two security agents to maintain law and order.
(10.) Successful applicant shall have their biometrics captured by RAO with DDC machine and issued with a Temporary Voter Card (TVC).
(11.) Thereafter, details of registrant shall also be recorded in the Form EC1A (Manual Register)
(12.) The RAO will backup registration data on a daily and weekly basis (manual register) by RAO.
(13.) At the end of the registration exercise, the electoral officer shall take all the DDC Machines and the back-up data to the state headquarters for data aggregation and consolidation to produce the supplementary list of register of voters.
Display and Hearing of Claims and Objections.
The display of the register of voters shall commence simultaneously with the registration exercise at the registration area.
(i.) The RAO shall print two copies of the daily register.
(ii.) As the registration area, a copy of the daily register of voters shall be pasted for display.
(iii.) The registrants shall be informed during registration to check for corrections of their data as displayed.
(iv.) At the end of the 15-day registration exercise, the RAO who will now transform to Revision Officer shall go around for another 12 days, starting from the last registration area, spending 4 days in each registration area for hearing of claims and objections.
(v.) The Electoral Officers will coordinate the hearing of claims and objections. All transactions that emanated from claims and objections shall be forwarded to state headquarters for application on the supplementary register of voters.