Why some voters won’t participate in Nasarawa by-election –INEC
The Nasarawa State Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Mallam Mohammed Abubakar Sadiq, has said voters who registered in the ongoing Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise from August 2025 will not be allowed to vote in the June 20, 2026 Nasarawa North Senatorial by-election. The REC said only four political parties successfully concluded primaries between May 22 […]
The Nasarawa State Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Mallam Mohammed Abubakar Sadiq, has said voters who registered in the ongoing Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise from August 2025 will not be allowed to vote in the June 20, 2026 Nasarawa North Senatorial by-election.
The REC said only four political parties successfully concluded primaries between May 22 and 26, 2026, and met INEC’s requirements. They are the All Progressives Congress (APC), Labour Party (LP), New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
“These four parties are standing for the by-election come June 20, 2026,” he said. Campaigns opened on June 10 and will end by 12:00 p.m. on June 18. INEC, he added, will continue to monitor campaigns to ensure compliance with the Electoral Act 2022 as amended.
Sadiq disclosed this on Wednesday in Lafia while briefing journalists on preparations for the polls. He explained that the commission would use the voters’ register deployed for the 2023 general election, as Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) for the current CVR had not been issued.
“The implication here is that those who registered recently, from August last year to date, have no business in this election, as we have not even given them their PVCs,” Sadiq said. “They should wait until the 2027 general election where, Inshallah, they will participate.”
He said Nasarawa North has 338,042 registered voters eligible for the by-election across the three local government areas of Akwanga, Nasarawa Eggon, and Wamba.
Sadiq said INEC has shortlisted Supervisory Presiding Officers drawn from its staff, the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), and the National Orientation Agency (NOA), who were trained from June 5th to 7th.
He explained that ad-hoc personnel, including presiding officers and Assistant Presiding Officers 1, 2, and 3, will be drawn mainly from NYSC members. “As of yesterday, NYSC has sent us the list of 583 corps members who will be deployed across the 583 polling units participating in this election,” he said. Training for the ad-hoc staff will hold from June 12 to 14 in the three LGAs.
He said registration Area Centres (RACs) and Super RACs have been identified for activation on Friday, June 19, to enable early deployment of personnel and materials for voting between 8:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m.
On results management, Sadiq said INEC will transmit polling unit results in real time via the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal, saying BVAS devices had been upgraded to transmit results both online and offline to mitigate network challenges.