• Remove age voters • Lagos, Kano maintain lead, S’East least
• The commission began to airlift sensitive materials for the country
• IPAC vows to resist anti-democratic forces
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) announced that only 93, 469,008 Nigerians are eligible to vote in next month’s polls. The commission also said it is not considering postponing or canceling elections due to security threats.
The Chairman of INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, stated this while presenting data of registered voters to political parties in Abuja, yesterday.
At the meeting were leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC), the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the Labor Party (LP), and the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), among others.
According to him, the presidential and National Assembly elections scheduled for Saturday, February 25, 2023 and the governorship and state council elections scheduled for Saturday, March 11, 2023, will be held as scheduled. He emphasized that any statement regarding the postponement or cancellation of elections is not the official position of the Commission.
“After viewing the voter list nationwide and the conclusion of claims and objections by citizens, a new national voter list has been compiled. In short, in the recent history of the Commission there has been a lot of forward planning and the implementation has been completed 44 days ahead of the general election.
“Therefore, the KPU is not thinking about adjusting the election schedule, let alone postponing the general election. For the avoidance of doubt, the presidential and National Assembly elections will be held on Saturday 25 February 2023, while the gubernatorial and state council elections will take place two weeks later on Saturday 11 March 2023.
“Repeated assurances by security agencies to protect personnel, materials and adequate processes also strengthen our resolve to proceed. The 2023 elections will be held as scheduled. Any report to the contrary is not the official position of the Commission. Yakubu stated.
In the electoral roll, the INEC boss announced that 53,264 names were removed following objections raised by Nigerians. Yakubu said: “You will recall that for the 2019 general election, Nigeria had 84,004,084 voters. After cleaning the data from the last Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise (June 2021 – July 2022), 9,518,188 new voters were added to the previous registration, resulting in initial 93,522,272, which is given 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 about the prevalence of ineligible persons in the register due to age, nationality or death. These names have been verified and removed from the register. Consequently, the electoral register for the general election 2023 there are 93,469,008.
A breakdown shows that men are 52.5 percent while women make up 47.5 percent of the total figure. Also young people include 39.65 percent, middle-aged 35.75 percent, elderly 18.94 percent and elderly (70+), 5.66 percent.
According to the latest data released by INEC, the North West geopolitical zone maintained its lead with a total of 22.25 million registered voters. As of the 2019 election, the North West zone, including seven states (Sokoto, Zamfara, Kano, Kaduna, Katsina, Kebbi and Jigawa) has 20.15 million voters.
South West, which includes Lagos, Ogun, Osun, Oyo, Ekiti and Ondo, has increased from 16.29 million in 2019 to 17.95 million. North Central, which consists of Nasarawa, Kogi, Benue, Niger, Kwara, Plateau and the Federal Capital Territory is behind with 15.36 million voters.
In fourth place is South South, which includes Akwa Ibom, Rivers, Cross River, Bayelsa, Edo and Delta. The number of registered voters increased from 12.8 million to 14.4 million, while the North East, comprising Yobe, Borno, Taraba, Adamawa, Bauchi and Gombe, now has 12.5 million voters.
The South East, which consists of five states (Ebonyi, Enugu, Abia, Anambra and Imo), recorded the lowest number. As of 2019, the region has 10 million registered voters. This has now increased to 10.9 million.
A state-by-state breakdown reveals that Lagos has the highest number, increasing from 6.5 million to seven million. Kano State also maintained its second position, increasing its figure from 5.4 million to 5.9 million. Kaduna State currently has 4.3 million registered voters, while Katsina has 3.5 million.
Speaking further, Yakubu said the Commission will continue to take every step to protect the sanctity of votes cast by citizens and deal with violations, including the arrest and prosecution of those who attempt to commit illegal acts in polling units on election day, despite their age. voters or vote buyers.
According to Yakubu, with the presentation of voters’ lists to political parties, the Commission has successfully implemented 11 of the 14 activities in its schedule.
He said that many sensitive and non-sensitive materials have been distributed in various locations across the country. Noting that the last batch of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) has been received, the INEC leadership said the ongoing configuration of critical technology to prepare for the election will be completed.
He further disclosed that the Commission has started transporting other sensitive materials to countries across the country, adding that some materials for 17 countries in three geo-political zones have been delivered. He added that around 13,868,441 Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) have been printed, sent to states and collected by citizens.
Speaking, the National Secretary, Inter-party Advisory Council (IPAC), Yusuf Mamman Dantalle, said that the 2023 general election will be different from the previous polls, because of the 2022 Electoral Act. He assured Nigerians that the Council will reject anti-democratic forces. trying to disrupt the innovations brought by INEC so far.
“We are equally appealing to the leaders of political parties in the country to see that power belongs to God and He gives it to whomever He wants,” he added.