The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says the number of registered voters in Nigeria is now 93,522,272, following the addition of 9,518,188 newly registered voters.
The INEC chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, said this in Abuja Wednesday at its quarterly meeting with political parties.
Prof. Yakubu said that the figure was preliminary as Section 19(1) and (2) of the Electoral Act 2022 required the commission to display the hard copies of the register of voters for each Registration Area (ward) and Local Government Area (LGA) before ratification.
He added that INEC was also required to simultaneously publish the entire register on its website for two weeks for scrutiny, claims, and objections by citizens not later than 90 days before a general election.
“Accordingly, in the next few days, the commission will print 9,352,228 pages of the register.
“The hard copy will be displayed for each of the 8,809 Registration Areas (Wards) and 774 LGAs nationwide while the entire register will be published on our website for claims and objections as required by law.
“The display of the physical register will take place at the designated centers from Saturday, November 12 to Friday, November 25.
“Further details, including the procedure for filing claims and objections, would be released by the commission next week,’’ he said.
Prof. Yakubu appealed to the electorate to seize the opportunity of the display to scrutinize the list and help INEC to clean it up so that the final register of voters for the 2023 General Election can be compiled and published.
He said that 12,298,944 Nigerians successfully completed the registration as new voters during the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) which started on 28 June 2021 and ended on 31 July 2022.
Out of that number, 2,780,756 (22.6 percent) were identified as ineligible registrants and invalidated from the record following a “rigorous” cleaning-up of the data using the Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS).
Infractions included double/multiple registration, under-aged registration, and fake registration that failed to meet the commission’s business rules.
“Consequently, the number of valid registrations (post-ABIS) is 9,518,188,” Professor Yakubu said.
“In terms of demographic distribution, 7.2 million new voters, or 76.5 percent are young people between 18-34 years while there is a slightly higher number of females (4.8 million or 50.82 percent) than males (4.6 million or 49.18 percent).
“In terms of occupation, 3.8 million (40.8 percent) are students. Hard copies giving the full details of the distribution of the new voters are included in your folders for this meeting.
“The soft copy has already been uploaded to the Commission’s website and social media platforms,’’ he said.
He said that INEC was working to ensure the completion of the printing of the remaining PVCs for new voters as well as those that applied for transfer or the replacement of their lost or damaged cards.
INEC would inform Nigerians of its detailed plans to ensure a seamless collection of the PVCs in the coming days, Professor Yakubu said.
