While some Togolese have no voter’s ID, others have several

While several eligible Togolese citizens remain without voters’ ID cards despite the extensions during the registrations from April to June, others have tried to get multiple cards during this operation, which was however marked by the malfunctioning of the machines.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) has communicated the discovery of 91,000 files of potential duplicates which were listed during the biographical and biometric data verification operation initiated by the institution.

“This operation is recommended by the Electoral Code in its article 61 which provides: When it is found that a voter is registered on several lists, only the last registration is taken into account. It is automatically removed from the other lists. When the same voter is registered several times on the same list, there must only be one registration,” recalled the Electoral commission.

Moreover, “various possible criminal provisions incurred in case of fraud linked to registration on the electoral lists”, warns the chairperson of the CENI, Yago DABRE.

What is surprising about this news, is the fact that there is a large number of eligible citizens, especially in the south of the country, who have not been able to register because of malfunctions and lack of equipment.