The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has announced the registration of 269,992 new voters in Edo and Ondo states.
INEC’s National Commissioner and Chairman of the Information and Voter Education Committee, Sam Olumekun,confirmed this in a statement released on Tuesday.
According to the latest statistics from the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) as of Sunday, June 9, 2024, the new registrants comprise 129,246 males (47.87%) and 140,756 females (52.13%). Notably, 182,541 of these new voters (67.61%) are youths aged between 18 and 34 years. The statistics further reveal that 95,463 registrants (35.36%) are students, and 1,588 (0.59%) are Persons with Disability (PWD).
In addition to new registrations, INEC received 24,454 requests for the replacement of Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs), 74,493 applications for voter transfers, and 8,314 requests for information updates.
Olumekun emphasized that the preliminary voter register will be displayed for public scrutiny starting from June 12, 2024, for a duration of seven days. This display will occur in all 395 wards across Edo and Ondo states and will also be accessible on the INEC website.
“The display is intended for the public to identify any ineligible persons on the register and to file objections using Forms EC2 and EC3, which can be obtained from INEC officials or downloaded from the INEC website,” Olumekun stated.
Furthermore, he noted that fresh registrants and applicants who requested transfers, corrections, or replacements of lost or damaged PVCs could report any errors or wrong entries for correction. Following the claims and objections period, INEC will clean up the register using the Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS) before adding the new voters to the existing register for the two states.
INEC is urging the public to participate actively in this process to ensure the voter register’s accuracy and integrity. The final voter registration figures will be published after the claims and objections period and ABIS cleanup. The date for the commencement of the collection of new PVCs will be announced subsequently.
