…as students, farmers top highest voting population
Ahead of the 2023 general elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)has released a comprehensive list of registered voters nationwide with students, farmers topping the highest voting population.
INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, disclosed this while announcing the release of the national register of voters for the 2023 general elections in Abuja, said a total of 93,469,008 voters are registered to participate in the 2023 general elections.
According to him, students and framers/fishermen constitute the highest voting population in Nigeria’s national voter register for the 2023 general elections with 26,027,481, representing 27.8 per cent and 14,742,554, representing 15.8 per cent respectively, while 13,006,939 or 13.9 per cent of the voters’ distribution are housewives.
Mahmood said of the 93,469,008 registered voters, 49,054,162, representing 52.5 per cent are males while 44,414,846, 47.5 per cent are females.
On the age distribution of the voters, the INEC chairman said 37,060,399, representing 39.65 per cent are youth between the ages of 18 and 34; 33,413,591, representing 35.75 per cent are middle aged persons between the ages of 35 and 49.
He further stated that 17,700,270, representing 18.94 per cent are elderly voters between the ages of 50 and 69 while 5,294,748, representing 5.66 of voters are senior citizens aged 70 and above.
He also said that the cumulative figure of 85,362 persons from the recent CVR indicates that there are 21,150, representing 24 per cent are persons with Albinism and 13,387, representing 15.7 have physical impediment while 8,103 or 9.5 per cent are blind.
He reiterated that the presidential election as well as the elections for the 109 senatorial districts and 360 federal constituencies will be held on Saturday 25th February 2023 and two weeks later, the governorship elections in 28 States of the federation and all the 993 state assembly constituencies will be held on Saturday 11th March 2023.
The INEC chairman said the commission has now successfully implemented 11 out of the 14 activities scheduled on its timetable and schedule of activities for the 2023 general elections which were released since 26th February 2022.
“Already, substantial quantities of sensitive and non-sensitive materials have been deployed to various locations across the country. The last batch of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) has been received while the ongoing configuration of the critical technology in readiness for elections will soon be completed. In the last two days, we commenced the airlifting of other sensitive materials to states across the country.
“Already, some of the materials for 17 States in three geo-political zones have been delivered. Furthermore, 13,868,441 Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs) have been printed, delivered to states and are being collected by citizens as new voters or by existing voters who applied for transfer or replacement of cards as provided by law.
Similarly, following the display of the voters’ register nationwide and the conclusion of claims and objections by citizens, a new national register of voters has been compiled. In short, at no time in the recent history of the commission has so much of the forward planning and implementation been accomplished 44 days ahead of a general election.
“Therefore, the commission is not contemplating any adjustment to the election timetable, let alone the postponement of the general election. For the avoidance of doubt, the presidential and national assembly elections will hold on Saturday 25th February 2023 while governorship and state assembly elections will hold two weeks later on Saturday 11th March 2023.
“The repeated assurance by the security agencies for the adequate protection of our personnel, materials and processes also reinforces our determination to proceed. The 2023 general elections will hold as scheduled. Any report to the contrary is not the official position of the commission,” he said.
