The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC has finally announced the number of voters expected to go to the polls in 2023.
According to INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, 93.5 million people are expected to vote in the February and March elections.
No fewer than 84,004,084 million Nigerians were registered for the 2023 election. The additional eligible voters at the close of the recent Continuous Voter Registration is 9,518,188.Thus bringing the number of eligible voters for the 2023 elections to 93,522,272.
Although he said the list is a preliminary one as people are expected to peruse and raise objections where an ineligible voter is found on the register.
Consequently, Yakubu revealed that the hardcopy of the Voters’ register would be made available at the wards across the country as from November 12, 2023 for public scrutiny and complaint.
The breakdown of the newly registered voters shows that 7.2 million of the registered voters are youths. Representing 76% of the 9.5 million.
Also, 4.8 million that is 50.2% are women while 4.6 million are men.
He said, ” 9,518,188 new voters have been added to the existing register of 84,004,084 voters. The PRELIMINARY register of voters in Nigeria now stands at 93,522,272. It is preliminary because Section 19(1) and (2) of the Electoral Act 2022 requires the Commission to display the hard copies of the register of voters for each Registration Area (Ward) and Local Government Area (and simultaneously publish the entire register on the Commission’s website) for a period of 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 Local Government Areas 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 12th – Friday 25thNovember 2022. Further details, including the procedure for filing claims and objections, will be released by the Commission next week. I would like to appeal to all Nigerians to seize the opportunity of the display to scrutinize the list and help us to clean it up further so that the final register of voters for the 2023 General Election can be compiled and published.
“The Commission is also working hard to ensure the completion of printing of remaining PVCs for new voters as well as those that applied to transfer or the replacement of their lost or damaged cards. In the coming days, we will also inform Nigerians of the detailed plan to ensure a seamless collection of the PVCs. We are aware that Nigerians expect an improvement in the procedure for PVC collection. Since the end of the CVR in July this year, we have been working to ensure that citizens have a pleasant experience when they come to collect their cards.”
