The new voter register released by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on January 11, 2023, shows that 93.46 million Nigerians are eligible to vote in the 2023 general election.
INEC arrived at the new number after cleaning the register by removing 53,264 ineligible voters from the preliminary register it published on its website in November 2022 following the objections raised by Nigerians.
The 93.46 million voters is an 11.26% increase from the 84 million eligible voters in the 2019 general election.
The increase in the number was as a result of new voters who registered during the Continuous Voters Registration (CVR) exercise, which took place between June 2021 to July 2022.
You will recall that on June 28, 2021, INEC resumed the CVR, which ran up until July 2022. At the end of the exercise in July, the electoral commission announced that 12.29 million persons had completed their registration. However, in October, INEC said that only 9.51 million registrations were valid.
When the 9.51 million valid registered voters were added to the voter register used for the 2019 general election, the total number of registered voters came to 93.52 million.
However, this was reviewed following the 54,264 objections raised by citizens on the preliminary register INEC published in November 2022. This now brings the total number of persons on the voter register for the 2023 election to 93.46 million.
It is worth mentioning that at least 85,362 of the eligible voters in the new register are Persons with Disabilities (PWDs). However, the 85,362 are not the entire PWDs on the voter register. But, they are only those who were captured during the last CVR exercise because, in previous elections, the PWDs data was not disaggregated.
The new voter register breakdown shows that 44.41 million, representing 47.52 percent of the total registered voters, are female, while 49.05 million (52.48 percent) are male. In the 2019 voter register, females accounted for 47%, while males were 53%.
A further breakdown shows that youths (i.e., those who are 18-34 years) form the largest voting bloc in the 2023 general election accounting for 39.65% of the eligible voters. This is followed by the middle age (35-49 years) — 35.75%. The elderly and old account for 18.94% and 5.66%, respectively.
In 2019, youths also formed the largest voting bloc. Then, they accounted for 51.11% of total registered voters. It is, however, important to state that those aged 18 to 35 were classified as youth, but in the new register, the youth demography covers only those aged 18-34.
By occupation, students, those into farming/fishing, housewives, and those into business constitute the largest voting bloc in the election. Together, they make up 70.86% of the eligible voters in the upcoming election.
The register also showed that for the 2023 election shows that Lagos, Kano, Kaduna, Rivers, and Katsina are the top 5 states with the highest number of voters.
Ekiti, Bayelsa, Yobe, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), and Gombe have the lowest number of registered voters for the 2023 elections. The same in 2019.
While all the states and the FCT recorded an increase in the number of registered voters, Kwara, Nassarawa, Kogi, FCT, and Osun had the highest percentage increase in their registered voters.
Although an increase in registered voters has not necessarily translated into an increase in voter turnout in recent elections, INEC has said it is targeting at least 50% voter turnout in the 2023 general election.
While the commission has partnered with a number of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) to drive more participation in the 2023 election, reports from different quarters of the country, particularly about the ongoing Permanent Voters Cards (PVC) collection, have not been encouraging as citizens lament the difficulty in picking their PVC which is the only thing that will qualify them to vote.
For instance, in Lugbe Primary School, one of the PVC collection centre that Dataphyte visited, some of the registered voters who came to pick up their PVC complained about the delay in the collection process.
“I have been here since 9 am to pick up my PVC, this is 1 pm, and I am yet to get it. The INEC officials are quite slow, and the whole process is not organised”, Mirabel told Dataphyte at Lugbe Primary School. The story was not different for many others who came to collect their PVC too.
In some other parts of Abuja, Dr Yunusa Tanko, the Chief Spokesperson of the Labour Party Presidential Campaign Council (PCC), also raised concerns about the poor distribution of PVC by the INEC staff.
Motunrayo, a Lagos resident, also complained about the frustration she faced and the long hours she had to wait before she could get her PVC at the Eti-Osa local government ward.
Although the experience of some citizens is somewhat better in some parts of the country, INEC may need to review its current distribution process and make the process more seamless for the citizens.