The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has extended the deadline for the ongoing Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) for the 2023 election. The announcement was made on June 30th by INEC’s National Electoral Commissioner for Information and Voter Education, Festus Okoye.
With this extension, eligible voters who are yet to register for their Permanent Voter Card (PVC) now have time to do so.
There had been several appeals by Nigerians and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) for the electoral body to extend the CVR exercise which had been scheduled to end on June 30. The call for extension is to enable eligible voters to register for their Permanent Voter Card (PVC) so as to participate in the forthcoming election.
On June 30th, INEC finally extended the deadline. Although the electoral commission did not state how long the extension will last, it explained that it extended the CVR registration to “provide its electoral services to the Nigerian people by registering all eligible Nigerians that were interested in registering”.
What are the numbers saying?
The most recent CVR update released by INEC puts the figure of total fresh registrants at 10.49 million. However, only 9.46 million have completed the registration both online and in person. A total of 6.14 million registration were done physically while 3.31 million were online.
A breakdown of the data shows that females currently lead in the number of persons who have registered and completed their registration. The figure stands at 4.77 million for females and 4.68 million for males.
Compared to the data released last month, the number of completed registration by females increased by 10% while that of males rose by 9.1%.
By age group, the Sorosoke generation (youth) accounts for 70.8% of the 9.46 million completed registrations. The middle age (35-49 years) follow with 20%. The elderly and old who have completed the process stand at 8% and 1.1%, respectively.
The number of youth who completed their registration between June 27th when INEC released the CVR update and now, increased by 10.1%. The middle age group who completed their registration increased by 8.3% as well.
By occupation, students make up the majority of registered voters — 3.41 million. Those into business and farming/fishing came second with 1.72 million and 1.20 million respectively. Trailing them are housewives, with a total of 1.12 million.
At the moment, Delta state tops the 36 states and Federal Capital Territory (FCT) with the highest number of those who have completed their registration. According to the latest data released, 426,965 persons have completed their registration in the state. Kano and Lagos follow with 426,598 and 416,079, respectively.
At the bottom are Imo, Yobe, Ekiti, and the FCT. The 4 bottom states have less than 130,000 completed registrations.
The extension by INEC provides an opportunity for more eligible voters to register; however, the electoral commission needs to adopt measures to ease the process as many people have complained about the crowds and the length of time it takes to get the registration done.