Issue 1
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) commenced the Continuous Voters Registration (CVR) exercise on 28 June 2021 with the online pre-registration process. The introduction of online registration created an opportunity for eligible voters to commence their registration process online and subsequently visit an INEC registration centre to complete their full biometric registration. The online registration saw a large number of citizens engaging the INEC CVR portal with a total of 1,609, 981 eligible voters concluding their pre-registration as of 9th August 2021.
To provide independent oversight over the CVR exercise, Yiaga Africa trained and deployed 171 Watching the Vote observers in six states selected from six geo-political zones and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). The states were purposely selected based on the number of registered voters, political, religious and ethnic diversities and the upcoming off-cycle elections. Accordingly, the observers will continue to observe the process in all Local Government Areas of Anambra, Lagos, Rivers, Adamawa, Kano, and Plateau States and the FCT.
Yiaga Africa’s Watching the Vote (WTV) employs a mixed methodology consisting of stationary observation and mobile observation. For stationary observation, the observers on assigned days visit their preassigned LGA registration centre and observe the process from the opening of the centre until the last eligible voter for each day registered and the centre closed for that day. For mobile observation, the observers will observe and document
any critical incident witnessed and send in reports of the critical incidents observed.
This first report provides an update on the first two weeks of the CVR process based on Yiaga Africa’s Watching the Vote observation of the process in 158 registration centres in six states and the FCT from the date of
commencement of the physical process; Monday, 26 July 2021 to Friday 6 August 2021. Specifically, WTV observers deployed for stationary observation on July 26 and 29, and August 2nd, 4th & 6th, 2021.
