INEC says North-West has the highest number of voters with 22,255,562 voters, followed by South-West which has 17, 958,966 voters. South-East has the least number of voters with 10,905606 voters.
By Emma Ogbuehi
In a determined push for the final lap of the preparation for the forthcoming general elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has presented the register of voters to chairmen and secretaries of Nigeria’s 18 registered political parties. 93.47m voters will participate in polls. Of this cumulative figure, 49,054,162 (52.5%) are male while 44,414,846 (47.5%) are female. Further breakdown of the 93.469 million voters shows that the 20 states of the North have 50, 161,722 voters while the South has 43,305,286 votes
At the ceremony which took place in Abuja, on Wednesday, INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, restated the readiness of the commission to go ahead with the elections, stressing that it had been bolstered by assurances by Nigeria’s agencies of a conducive environment for the polls.
To this end, INEC said it has commenced the airlift of sensitive and non-sensitive materials to states.
Yakubu noted that with just 44 days to the General Election, and with the presentation of the register of voters to political parties, the Commission has now successfully implemented 11 out of the 14 activities on the timetable and schedule for the polls.
According to him, the implementation of other activities has proceeded in earnest. Yakubu added that at no time in the recent history of the Commission has so much of the forward planning and implementation been accomplished 44 days ahead of a General Election. He stressed that there is no contemplation of adjustment to polls timetable
“Therefore, the Commission is not contemplating any adjustment to the election timetable, let alone the postponement of the General Election”, he declared.
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For emphasis, the INEC chair stated that the Presidential and National Assembly elections will hold on Saturday 25th February 2023 while Governorship and State Assembly elections will hold two weeks later on Saturday 11th March 2023.
According to him, the 2023 General Election will hold as scheduled. Any report to the contrary is not the official position of the Commission.
Yakubu added; “As a further affirmation of the Commission’s readiness to conduct the 2023 General Election as scheduled, the final register of voters has been compiled.
“You would recall that for the 2019 General Election, Nigeria had a voter population of 84,004,084. After the cleaning up of the data from the last Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise (June 2021 – July 2022), 9,518,188 new voters were added to the previous register resulting in the preliminary register of 93,522,272 which was presented to Nigerians for claims and objections as required by law.
“At the end of the period for claims and objections by citizens, the Commission received 53,264 objections from Nigerians to the prevalence of ineligible persons on the register by virtue of age, citizenship or death. These names have been verified and removed from the register.
“Consequently, the register of voters for the 2023 General Election stands at 93,469,008. Of this cumulative figure, 49,054,162 (52.5%) are male while 44,414,846 (47.5%) are female. The distribution by age group shows that 37,060,399 (39.65%) are youth between the ages of 18 and 34; 33,413,591 (35.75%) are middle-aged persons between the ages of 35 and 49; 17,700,270 (18.94%) are elderly voters between the ages of 50 and 69 while 5,294,748 (5.66%) are senior citizens aged 70 and above. In terms of occupational distribution, students constitute the largest category with 26,027,481 (27.8%) of all voters, followed by 14,742,554 (15.8%) farmers/Fishermen, and 13,006,939 (13.9%) housewives.
“The data on disability was not collected for previous registration. However, the cumulative figure of 85,362 persons from the recent CVR indicates that there are 21,150 (24.5%) persons with Albinism; 13,387 (15.7%) with physical impediment and 8,103 (9.5%) are blind”.
The INEC boss added that already, substantial quantities of sensitive and non-sensitive materials have been deployed to various locations across the country.
According to him, the last batch of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS, has been received while the ongoing configuration of the critical technology in readiness for elections will soon be completed.
“In the last two days, we commenced the airlifting of other sensitive materials to states across the country. Already, some of the materials for 17 states in three geo-political zones have been delivered.
“Furthermore, 13,868,441 Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs) have been printed, delivered to states and are being collected by citizens as new voters or by existing voters who applied for transfer or replacement of cards as provided by law.
“Similarly, following the display of the voters’ register nationwide and the conclusion of claims and objections by citizens, a new national register of voters has been compiled.
“I would like to reiterate our commitment to a transparent, credible and inclusive 2023 General Election. We will continue to take every step to protect the sanctity of the votes cast by citizens and to deal with infractions, including the arrest and prosecution of persons that attempt to perpetuate illegality at Polling Units on Election Day, be they under-aged voters or vote buyers.
“Once again, the Commission appreciates the patience of Nigerians who have been queuing up at the designated centres to collect the PVCs. To make it easier, we devolved the collection to the 8,809 Registration Areas/Wards nationwide. We have also uploaded the comprehensive list of the Ward collection centres nationwide to our website. The locations can also be identified by sending a short text message to any of the two dedicated telephone lines. The details are also available on the Commission’s website”, he added.
Among the six geo-political zones, the North-West has the highest number of voters with 22,255,562 voters. It is followed by South-West which has 17, 958,966 and North-Central including Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory with 15,363,731 voters.
South East has the least number of voters with 10,905606 voters.
