The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, on Wednesday announced that 93.5 million Nigerians are registered to vote in the 2023 general elections.
Driving the news
A breakdown of the numbers released by the electoral commission shows that of 12.29 million Nigerians who completed the suspended Continuous Voter Registration exercise (CVR), 2.78 million people were removed in a mop-up exercise. Therefore, the 9,518,188 newly registered voters from the CVR exercise are now included in the existing register of 84,004,084 voters.
- This brings the total number of registered voters for the 2023 general elections to 93,522,272 people.
What’s more
A further breakdown of the numbers released by INEC shows that 7.2 million, or 76.5 percent of the newly registered voters, are young people between 18 and 34 years. By gender, there is a slightly higher number of females (4.8 million or 50.82 per cent) compared to males (4.6 million or 49.18 per cent) voters.
- By demography, the North West geopolitical zone (including Sokoto, Zamfara, Kano, Kaduna, Katsina, Kebbi and Jigawa State) has the highest total of 22.27 million registered voters.
- In second place is the south west with 17.93 million. An increase from 16.29 million in 2019. The states in the southwest region of Nigeria are Lagos, Ogun, Osun, Oyo, Ekiti and Ondo.
- The north central is the third highest geopolitical zone with 15.33 million voters, adding 1.96 million newly registered voters to its 13.36 million figures in 2019. The states in the north central are Nasarawa, Kogi, Benue, Niger, Kwara, Plateau and the Federal Capital Territory.
- Next is the south-south with 14.4 million registered voters. This is a rise from 12.84 million in 2019. The states in the south-south are Akwa Ibom, Rivers, Cross River, Bayelsa, Edo and Delta state.
- The fifth geopolitical zone is the north East with 12.5 million. This figure rose from 12.84 million in 2019. The states in this region are Yobe, Borno, Taraba, Adamawa, Bauchi and Gombe.
- Last is the southeast, with 10.9 million, less than 1 million people were added to the existing figure of 10 million in 2019. The states in the southeast are Ebonyi, Enugu, Abia, Anambra and Imo.