2023: Court Bars INEC From Ending Voter Registration

Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has barred the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, from effecting end to voter registration on June 30, 2022.

 

Newsonline reports that the interim injunction barring INEC from effecting closing voter registration was given by Justice Mobolaji Olajuwon on Monda.

 

Honorable Justice Mobolaji Olajuwon granted the order of interim injunction following the hearing of an argument on motion exparte by Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, SERAP.

 

Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project Deputy Director, Kolawole Oluwadare, disclosed this in a statement to newsmen.

 

Newsonline had reported that rights advocacy group SERAP and 185 concerned Nigerians, on June 5, filed the lawsuit against INEC, asking the court to “declare unconstitutional, illegal, and incompatible with international standards the failure of the electoral body to extend the deadline for voter registration to allow eligible Nigerians to exercise their rights, ” read more.

 

SERAP is asking  the court for “an order restraining INEC, its agents, privies, assigns, or any other person(s) claiming through it from discontinuing the continuous voters’ registration exercise from the June 30, 2022, or any other date pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice.”

 

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SERAP and 185 concerned Nigerians plead for “an order of mandamus to direct and compel INEC to extend voter registration by a minimum of three months and take effective measures to ensure that eligible Nigerians are able to register to exercise their right to vote in the 2023 general elections.”

 

The suit is adjourned to June 29, 2022, for the hearing of the Motion on Notice for interlocutory injunction.

 

The suit followed the decision by INEC to extend the deadline for the conduct of primaries by political parties by 6 days, from June 3 to June 9.

 

In the suit number FHC/L/CS/1034/2022 filed at the Federal High Court, Lagos, and transferred to Abuja, SERAP is seeking the court to determine “whether the failure of INEC to extend the deadline for voter registration isn’t a violation of Nigerian Constitution, 1999 [as amended], the Electoral Act, and international standards.”