Barely 161 days to the commencement of 2019 general elections, Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC has recorded 84.27 million registered voters in the country.
According to its latest statistics, the commission also stated that the collection of PVCs would continue until one week to the 2019 general elections.
Infographics obtained from the electoral umpire Thursday in Abuja showed that over 14.55 million voters were registered in the Continuous Voter Registration, CVR, exercise which began in April 2017 and ended on August 31, 2018.
As of 2015, there were 69,720,350. The new figure of registrants, 14,551, 482 brings the actual figure to a total 84,271,832.
Of the new registrants, 7,863,917 are males, while 6,688,214 are females.
With 91 registered political parties, Nigeria’s huge voter population could present a lot of logistical challenges for the electoral umpire during the 2019 general elections.
Within the period of the new registration, 869,406 Permanent Voter Cards PVCs were collected; transfer requests were put at 769, 917, while replacement requests were put at 1, 178,793.
Elaborating on the figures during a meeting with Resident Electoral Commissioners, RECs, INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, recalled that for a period of 16 months, April 27, 2017, to August 31, 2018, the exercise was conducted continuously in all the states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, as envisaged by the Electoral Act.
He said though the total figure of 84,271,832 “may drop slightly after we run the Automatic Fingerprint Identification System AFIS, the current figure represents about 21 per cent increase on the existing register.”
He appealed to Nigerians to seize the opportunity of the ongoing nationwide display of the particulars of new voters for claims and objections as required by law.
“By doing so, citizens will be helping the Commission to further clean up the register and purge it of all ineligible registrants as required by Sec. 12 of the Electoral Act,” he said.
According to Yakubu, the commission has consistently shared information on the voter registration exercise with Nigerians by publishing the figures as well as detailed breakdown by states and gender.
After running the AFIS, the commission, he said, shall present a detailed analysis of the voter register, not only by state and gender, but also by age group and occupation.
He added: “In addition to fresh registration, the Commission is also processing 769,917 requests for intra and inter-State transfers as well as 1,178,793 requests for replacement of lost, damaged or cards with misspelt names or incorrect personal details of voters as required by law.
”This means that the commission has to print a total of 16,500,192 Permanent Voters’ Cards PVCs and make them available for collection by citizens ahead of the 2019 general elections.
”Already, the commission has printed the PVCs for those registered in 2017 and delivered them to states for collection. I can also confirm that the PVCs for 2.7 million voters registered in the first quarter of 2018 have been printed and will be delivered to the States next week.
”We wish to reassure Nigerians that every registered voter will have his/her PVC available for collection before the general election.”
Yakubu further disclosed that the collection of PVCs will continue until one week to the 2019 general elections.
He said: “We shall ensure that the process of collection is simplified with minimum inconvenience to citizens. We will also ensure that information about the collection of PVCs is widely disseminated. ”Already, we are partnering with telecommunication companies to send bulk text (sms) messages to citizens for the collection of their PVCs. Today’s (yesterday) meeting will also consider other options, including the devolution of collection to Ward level.
”We, however, wish to restate the commission’s policy that no PVCs will be collected by proxy. Registered voters must endeavour to collect their cards personally. We are working hard to ensure that no PVC goes into the wrong hands.”
