In preparation for the 2023 elections, INEC resumed its Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) on June 28, 2021. The commission has said it is targeting at least 120 million voters for the 2023 general elections.
To meet this target, at least 36 million new voters would have to register, as the total number of registered voters in the 2019 elections was 84 million. The latest CVR update dated March 14, 2023, from INEC shows that the Commission has received a total of 7.01 million fresh registrants since the commencement of the exercise. However, only 4.01 million (57.2%) have completed their registration (online and in-person) so far.
At the moment, Osun and Delta states have the highest number of completed CVR. Osun state has 278,835, while Delta state has 219,306. At the bottom is Enugu with 38,976 and Yobe with 39,443.
Of the total 4.01 million people who have completed their CVR in the 36 states and FCT, 33,985 are Persons with Disabilities (PWDs).
By gender distribution, data shows that males account for 50.1% of the completed CVR while females stand at 49.9%.
Further analysis revealed that 2.77 million (69%) of the people who have completed their CVR are between 18-34 years, while 21% are between 35-49 years.
In the CVR exercise before the 2019 general elections, a total of 14.2 million Nigerians registered between 2017 and 2018. This brought the total number of registered voters for the election to 84 million.
The Electoral Commission said it is targeting 120 million voters for the 2023 general polls. But, so far, only 4.01 million persons have completed their CVR which means that the Commission is still far from its target.
It has taken about 9 months since the CVR exercise began in June 2021, to get to the 4.01 million mark, even if registrations were to continue until January 2023, at the same pace, only about 4.44 million more registered voters would have been added. This is still far from the 36 million needed to hit the set target of voters in the next elections and voter registration will not continue for that long as it is slated to end in the third quarter of 2022.
INEC, political parties as well as Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) may have to do more publicity to get more people who have attained the voting age to register and to participate in the upcoming elections.