INEC loses bid to stop voter registration June 30

 

A Federal High Court in Abuja has stopped the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from ending voter registration on June 30.

The interim order was granted yesterday by Justice Mobolaji Olajuwon (Court 10) after hearing an ex-parte motion filed by Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP).

The rights group had sued INEC over the commission’s failure to extend the voter registration.

It asked the court to declare as unconstitutional, illegal, and incompatible with international standards the commission’s failure to extend the deadline for voter registration to enable eligible Nigerians to exercise their rights.

In the suit filed alongside 185 others, SERAP asked the court for an order restraining INEC, its agents, or any other person(s) claiming through it from discontinuing the continuous voter registration from June 30 pending the hearing and determination of the substantive suit.

Justice Olajuwon adjourned the matter till June 29 to hear the motion on notice.

SERAP said the suit was premised because INEC extended the deadline for the conduct of primaries but failed to also extend the online pre-registration, which ended May 30, and the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) ending June 30.

In the suit filed at the Federal High Court in Lagos and transferred to Abuja, SERAP is asking the court for the following reliefs, amongst others:

“To determine whether the failure of INEC to extend the deadline for voter registration is not a violation of 1999 Constitution (as amended), the Electoral Act, and international standards.”