The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says the number of registered voters in Nigeria, has risen from 84,004,084 to 93,522,272, following the addition of 9,518,188 newly registered voters.
Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, the Chairman, INEC Chairman, said this at third quarterly meeting with political parties for 2022 on Wednesday in Abuja.
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).
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 to 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.
Yakubu appealed to the electorate to seize the opportunity of the display to scrutinise the list and help INEC to clean it up further 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 June 28 before its suspension on July 31.
Yakubu said that after a rigorous cleaning-up of the data using the Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS), a total of 2,780,756 (22.6 per cent) was identified as ineligible registrants and invalidated from the record.
The INEC chairman said among those affected were double/multiple registrants, under aged persons and out rightly fake registrations that failed to meet the commission’s business rules.
“Consequently, the number of valid registrations (post-ABIS) is 9,518,188.
“In terms of demographic distribution, 7.2 million new voters or 76.5 per cent are young people between 18-34 years while there is a slightly higher number of female (4.8 million or 50.82 per cent) than male (4.6 million or 49.18 per cent) voters.
“In terms of occupation, 3.8 million (40.8 per cent) 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 printing of remaining PVCs for new voters as well as those that applied for transfer or the replacement of their lost or damaged cards.
Yakubu said that in the coming days, INEC would inform Nigerians of its detailed plans to ensure a seamless collection of the PVCs.
He said that INEC had so far successfully implemented nine of the 14 activities for the 2023 general election.
He added that the commission was making a steady progress in other critical areas of preparations for the election.
This according to Yakubu, includes the provision of sensitive and non-sensitive materials, the recruitment of staff and planning for the movement of personnel and materials for the election.
“Only last week, we commenced the training of master trainers on election technology to ensure a seamless process.
“Beginning from tomorrow, we will commence the same training at zonal level and subsequently train all the ad hoc staff for the 176,846 polling units nationwide,’’ he said.
Yakubu said that incidence form would not be used in 2023 general election, saying there was no going back on the deployment of technology for the election.
“On this note, let me once again reassure Nigerians that there is no going back on the deployment of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) for voter accreditation.
“There is no going back on the transmission of results to the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV) in real-time on Election Day.
“There will be no Incident Form that enables ineligible persons to vote using other people’s Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) during election.
“We are committed to ensuring that the 2023 general election is transparent and credible, reflecting the will of the Nigerian people,’’ he said.(NAN)
