INEC is scheduled to close the CVR in Anambra on Monday to ensure the availability of personnel and logistics for processes aimed at a successful November 6 governorship election in the state. The chairman of CLO in Anambra, Mr. Vincent Ezekwueme, told newsmen in Enugu on Monday that the commission should consider extending the exercise, which is the bedrock of participatory democracy, to the end of September.

    According to Ezekwueme, this is due to the inability of prospective registrants to register  owe to one or two unforeseen circumstances and delays. “If the CVR registration is not extended in Anambra, many citizens will be disfranchised. “There is an urgent need for INEC to do the needful by extending voters registration exercise in Anambra by a month.

    “Governments at all levels, INEC, National Orientation Agency, civil society organizations, religious and traditional leaders should double their efforts on mobilization and enlightenment of citizenry on the inexorable need to obtain their voter’s cards. “The voter card remains a veritable and legitimate weapon to enthrone good governance as well as vote out selfish and corrupt leaders,” he said. The CLO boss also begged contestants, political parties, and politicians to give peace a chance by bearing the interest of the state and citizens above their parties and personal interest. “It is an existential reality that for them to actualize this, the game of politics, electioneering campaign before, during and after the election should be following the constitution, electoral act,” he said. He reiterated the earlier appeal of the organization to political stakeholders and supporters to shun campaigns of acrimony and calumny, name-calling, character assassination, and casting unsubstantiated aspersions against their opponents.

“Candidates should prepare their mind to accept the irrefutable fact that only one candidate will eventually emerge as the winner,” he said.