As part of the preparation for the forthcoming election in 2023, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) restarted the voters registration exercise in 2021 to add to the country’s voters list which in 2019 was 84 million out of the country’s population of about 200 million. As of June 27th 2022, INEC had recorded 10.48 million new registrants, with 8.63 million registrants completing the entire process.
Current situation
Nigerian youths have increased their interest in participating in the 2023 elections in such a way that INEC data showed that 70% of the 8.63 million completed registration was done by the youths. This figure amounts to 6 million youth.
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- The ignited interest by the Nigerian public to obtain the permanent voters card (pvc) fueled the constant call for an extension on the continuous voter registration exercise, which had an initial deadline of June 30th.
- The House of Representatives intervened by urging INEC to extend the deadline on voters’ registration by 60 days.
- The Federal High Court in Abuja presided over by Honorable Justice Mobolaji Olajuwon ruled for the continuation of voters’ registration exercise by INEC after SERAP and 185 Nigerians filed a lawsuit against the commission.
- These actions forced INEC to extend the deadline.
States with the highest registrants since 2019
- Lagos State had the highest number of registered voters in the 2019 election, with 6.57 million people. The figures from the ongoing continuous voter registration (CVR) exercise show that Lagos State still leads the chart of registered voters with 371,760 new registrations so far. This brings Lagos State total voters’ list from 2019 to 6.94 million.
- Kano State, the state with the second highest registered voters in Nigeria’s 2019 election, has a total of 380,582 new voters so far. With the addition of 5.45 million registered voters in 2019, Kano State has a total of 5.83 million.
- According to INEC data, the third state with the highest number of registered voters from 2019 till date with 4.2 million is Kaduna State. While 3.93 million is from the 2019 election, the other 306,949 is from the new registrations in the ongoing continuous voters registration (CVR) exercise.
- Rivers State is the fourth highest state in Nigeria, with the most registered voters, with a total of 3.58 million. While 3.21 million voters are from the 2019 election, the rest 372,406 are from the ongoing continuous voters registration (CVR) exercise.
- Katsina State makes up the top five states with the most registered voters, with a total of 3.44 million people. 3.2 million registered voters from the 2019 election and 213,834 in the CVR exercise.
- Other states with high registered voters above the 2 million marks include Delta State, Oyo State, Benue, Bauchi and Anambra State.