INEC reveals preparation for managing over 100 parties, 80 million voters for 2019 polls

Over 100 political parties may feature on the ballot paper in the forthcoming 2019 general elections.

INEC’s Chairman Mahmood Yakubu said this on Thursday in Abuja at an Elections Stakeholders’ Summit organised by the Transition Monitoring Group (TMG), DFID and Christian Aid Nigeria under the auspices of the Voice to the People (V2P) project.

According to him, no fewer than 138 political associations had applied for registration as political parties.

As part of the commission’s preparations, the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) officers, he said, have been deployed to voter registration centres across the country leading to arrests of over 300 foreigners attempting to register.

”As at May 24, an estimated 9 million voters were added to the voters’ register bringing the total number to an estimated 80 million,” said Yakubu.

He added that INEC is also collaborating with security agencies and formulating administrative procedures to check incidents of vote-buying at polling centres.