Claim: A Twitter user claims the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) will end March 22.
The claim is false as officials of the commission and the commission’s timetable for the exercise reveal the exercise is scheduled to end June 30, not March 22, 2022.
Full Text
The Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) for the 2023 general election commenced Monday, June 28, 2021. This process is currently ongoing for eligible voters who are not on the country’s voter’s register, to get registered before the election.
On Wednesday, February 2, 2022, a Twitter user Mo-Mo (@Moris_Monye), calling on the public to register, claimed the CVR exercise will end March 22, 2022.
“I use God beg you, let us register. This will close March 22nd 2022” part of the tweet read.
Reacting to his post, another Twitter user Noble (@noble_idy) countered this claim, noting the exercise will be suspended on June 30.
“March 22 is the end of the 3rd quarter. The last quarter starts April 11 to June 30, and then CVR is suspended” his comment read.
Verification
A keyboard search on the CVR process led to several news reports on the announcement of the commencement of the process in June 2021.
According to this report by the Cable, the INEC Chairman , Mahmood Yakubu, said “Effective from Monday 28th June 2021, the CVR exercise will commence nationwide and be carried out continuously for over a year until the third quarter of 2022.”
Another report by Channels Television noted that the chairman said the commission will continue the exercise on a quarterly basis for one year, beginning Monday, June 28, 2021.
Also, this video by Channels shows the chairman, saying “We intend to undertake the CVR exercise over a period of at least one year.”
DUBAWA reached out to INEC’s National Commissioner, Festus Okoye, and the Chief Press Secretary (CPS) to the National Chairman, Rotimi Oyekanmi, to clarify when the CVR is expected to end.
Mr Festus Okoye, provided an image of the CVR timetable which showed that the registration exercise is divided into four quarters and will end June 30, 2022.
The first quarter was from June 28 to September 21, the second quarter from October 4 to December 30, the third quarter from January 3 to March 22 and the fourth quarter from April 11 to June 30, 2022.
Mr Rotimi Oyekanmi, also responded to our inquiry saying “Not true. the CVR will not close earlier than June.”
Conclusion
The claim that registration to vote in 2023 will end March 22 is false. The commission’s timetable for the exercise reveals the exercise is scheduled to end June 30, not March 22, 2022. The date, March 22, 2022, is the end of the third quarter of the exercise which is scheduled to last for four quarters.
