Fresh online registration is now over 1.3 million- INEC

The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, over the last four weeks has been providing weekly updates to Nigerians on the online registration of voters under the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) initiative, which began on June 28, 2021.

In-person (or physical) registration began last week across the country with eligible persons who registered online and those who choose to register in person ab initio were able to do so at the Commission’s State and LGA offices across the country.

The Commission says it will begin providing weekly updates on both the online pre-registration and the completed physical registration as of this week. As a result, the previous two-page update has been expanded to four pages in order to provide Nigerians with more information on completed registration.

As at 4pm on Tuesday 3rd August 2021, the number of fresh online pre-registrants is now 1,377,733 while 120,600 citizens have completed their physical registration since the exercise commenced on Monday 26th July 2021.

The detailed distribution of the registrants by age, State/FCT, occupation, gender, type of registration and disability has been uploaded to the Commission’s website and social media platforms.

Young Nigerians between the ages of 18 and 34 are still leading in both online registration (1,074,260 or 65%) and completed registration (84,619 or 70%). In terms of occupation, students are leading in both pre-registration (529,219 or 32%) and completed registration (48,897 or 41%). For gender distribution, 940,062 (or 57%) are male and 717,504 (or 43%) are female for online pre-registration while the figures for completed registration are 72,075 (or 60%) male and 48,525 (or 40%) female.

The Commission once again urged all Nigerians to take advantage of the opportunity to register online and book an appointment at their leisure to finish the process, or to register in person at any of the Commission’s State/LGA offices across the country.

INEC added that the ongoing registration does not include those who are already registered to vote. The current exercise is only open to Nigerians aged 18 and up who have never registered before. It is a violation of the Electoral Act for any citizen to register more than once.