The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said that over 300,000 ineligible voters were dropped after the Automatic Fingerprints Identification System (AFIS) screened out their names, as part of effort aimed at ensuring a clean voters’ register for the 2019 elections.

Newsdesk reported that the electoral body will today publish the voters’ register across the country.

This is coming as the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Prince Uche Secondus, urged voters to troop out to their various polling booths to check their names during the four-day display of the register, saying it is the first step against rigging of the 2019 elections.

The INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, disclosed this yesterday in Abuja when ECOWAS Pre- Election Fact-Finding Mission paid him a courtesy visit at the commission’s headquarters, where he assured them that the commission would continue to perfect and improve its processes, delivery of logistics and functionality of technology.

According to him, “For the registered voters, as at last week before I travelled, I was told that over 300,000 names were dropped, after the Automatic Fingerprints Identification System (AFIS). But cleaning the voters’ register is not just the responsibility of the commission, it is also the responsibility of every Nigerian.”

AFIS is a system used by the electoral body to check for multiple registrations.

Yakubu said based on the provision of the law, the commission would between November 6 (today), and 12, display the voters’ register for claims and objections in 120,000 polling units nationwide.

He said, “I will like to use this opportunity to appeal to the citizens to check when we display the register so that they can draw the attention of the commission to the prevalence if any of any ineligible person so that we can further clean up the voters’ register.

“Let me say that, as far as the commission is concerned, we are prepared and we have to be preparing for the 2019 general elections. In fact we can say that the 2019 general elections are perhaps the most deliberately well planned elections in our history.”

The electoral body said it would conduct elections into 1,558 constituencies in 2019, including one presidential constituency, 109 senatorial districts, 360 federal constituencies, 29 governorship elections, 991 state constituencies and 68 constituencies in the FCT for the area council, the chairmen and councilors, making a total of 1,558 constituencies.

The leader of the delegation, Mr. Mohammed Ali Monte, said the visit was aimed at getting an update on the preparation of INEC ahead of the 2019 elections.