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2023 Elections: INEC Reveals 93.47m Voters To Participate

by Victor Ndubuisi
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Two days after expressing concerns about the wave of general insecurity spreading over the country, the Independent National Electoral Commission, or INEC, has stated that it is determined to proceed with the conduct of the February/March general elections.

On Monday, INEC expressed concern that if pre-election violence was not stopped, it might result in the forced annulment of election results or the outright postponement of voting, which would trigger a constitutional crisis.

INEC Chairman Professor Mahmood Yakubu said the commission had been strengthened by assurances from Nigeria’s defense, security, and intelligence architecture that it would ensure a favorable environment for the elections while presenting the voter list to the chairmen and secretaries of the country’s 18 registered political parties yesterday in Abuja.

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The electoral umpire announced that it has started airlifting critical and non-sensitive materials to states as a result.

Yakubu noted that the Commission has now successfully carried out 11 out of the 14 actions on the timeline and schedule for the polls with only 44 days till the General Election, along with the transmission of the voter registration to political parties.

He claims that other actions are now being implemented in earnest.

In the recent history of the Commission, Yakubu said, there has never been a period when so much forward preparation and implementation has been completed 44 days prior to a General Election.

No more alterations to the election schedule.

“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 the avoidance of confusion, he stated, the presidential and national assembly elections will take place on February 25, 2023, while the governorship and state assembly elections would take place on March 11, 2023, a week later.

“The repeated assurances by the security agencies for the adequate protection of our personnel, materials and processes also reinforces our determination to proceed. The 2023 General Election will hold as scheduled. Any report to the contrary is not the official position of the Commission.

“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.

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“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,” he added.

The head of INEC continued by saying that significant amounts of sensitive and non-sensitive materials have already been distributed to numerous sites across the nation.

He claims that the final batch of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, or BVAS, has been received and that the crucial technology’s ongoing configuration in preparation for elections would soon be finished.

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“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.

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“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.

South receives 43.305 million votes, while North receives 50.162 million.

The 20 states in the North have 50, 161,722 voters, while the South has 43, 305,286 voters, according to a breakdown of the 93.469 million voters.

Top zones in the North-west and southwest

With 22,255,562 voters, the North-West has the most voters out of the six geopolitical zones.
The South-West, which has 17, 958,966 voters, comes in second, followed by the North-Central, which includes Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, with 15,363,731 voters.

With 10,905606 votes, the South-East has the fewest voters, followed by the North-East (12,542,429) and South-South (14,440,71).

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Most voters are in Lagos, Kano, and Kaduna.

A state-by-state breakdown showed that Lagos State with 7,060,195 registered voters topped the register, followed by Kano with 5,921,370 and Kaduna with 4,335,208.

Ekiti has the least number of voters with 987,647 followed by Bayelsa, 1,056,862; and Yobe, 1,485,146.

Others include:

Abia-2,120,808

Adamawa – 2,196,566

Akwa-Ibom -2,357,418

Anambra- 2,656,437

Bauchi – 2,749,268

Benue – 2,777,727

Borno – 2,513,281

Cross River – 1,766,466

Delta – 3,221,697

Ebonyi – 1,597,646

Edo -2,501,081

Enugu – 2,112,793

FCT, Abuja – 1,570,307

Gombe 1,575,794

Imo – 2,419,922

Jigawa – 2,351,298

Katsina – 3,516,719

Kebbi – 2,032,041

Kogi -1,932,654

Kwara -1,695,927

Nasarawa – 1,899,244

Niger- 2,698,344

Ogun- 2,688,305

Ondo -1,991,344

Osun- 1,954,800

Oyo -3,276,675

Plateau- 2,789,528

Rivers- 3,537,190

Sokoto -2,172,056

Taraba-2,022,374

Yobe -1,485,146

Zamfara – 1,926,870.

 

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