Prisoners to take part in 2019 election – INEC

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has announced plan for prison inmates to start exercising their voting right from the 2019 general elections.

The electoral body said it is making arrangements with prison authorities on the possibility of creating polling units in Nigerian prisons to allow some categories of inmates vote.

INEC chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, stated this at a dialogue session with the Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room Dialogue – a coalition of over 70 civil society organisations in Nigeria.

“We have already engaged the Comptroller General of Prisons and we have statistics on the number of prisoners nationwide and the number of inmates that are registered.

“We are looking at the possibility of creating polling units in the prisons and to enable some categories of prisoners vote. Ghana does it but there are some categories of prisoners who by the nature of crimes committed, lose the right to vote.

“Whatever we can do to open up the process to ensure that as much as possible Nigerians are given the opportunity to vote, we will do,” Yakubu stated.

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