Nigerians Poised For 2023 Polls As 8.2 Million Partake In INEC CVR In Six Months

About 8.2 million Nigerians, more than a quarter of those who voted in the 2019 presidential elections, have either registered to vote or requested transfer of their voting locations ahead of the 2023 general elections.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) received the applications between June 2021 and January 2022, an indication that more Nigerians are interested in precipitating in the election.

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“As at yesterday Monday 17th January 2022, a total of 8,260,076 eligible Nigerians commenced the online pre-registration, completed the registration physically or applied for transfer to new voting locations, replacement of their Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs) or updated their voter information records as required by law,” INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, said at the commission’s first regular quarterly meeting for 2022.

INEC had weeks to the 2019 general elections disclosed that 84,004,084 people registered to vote in the polls.

Despite the high number compared to the 68.8 million registered voters in 2015, the 2019 presidential elections recorded mere 35.66% turn out as only 29.3 million voters were accredited while only 27.3 million of votes cast were valid.

With the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) commenced by INEC in June 2021, it is expected that more than 90 million Nigerians would have been registered to vote in 2023 elections.

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Yakubu said on Tuesday that the commission would soon commence distribution of the Permanent Voters Card (PVCs) to eligible voters.

“At the moment, the Commission is undertaking the most comprehensive cleaning up of the data to ensure that only eligible citizens are added to the voters’ register for the 2023 General Election and will share our findings with Nigerians and the actual dates for the collection of the PVCs nationwide will be announced very soon.”

The INEC chairman urged political parties and other stakeholders to “continue to encourage eligible voters who have not registered to do so, bearing in mind that those who had registered at any time previously need not register again. Also, encourage voters who wish to transfer from their present Polling Units to new ones created as part of the Commission’s expansion of voter access polling units to do so immediately.”

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